Asia Pacific

The Indian government has raised around Rp7.28bn ($111.9m) after offloading part of its holding in NLC India through a popular offer-for-sale (OFS).

Latin American development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) is gearing up for its debut Panda bond before the end of 2017, which would make it the first in the format from South America. But the deal will only go ahead if the People’s Bank of China fulfills its promise of making the issuance process easier for foreign borrowers, the issuer told GlobalRMB.

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co has announced a price range for its IPO, which could raise up to Rp86.9bn ($1.3bn) for its two biggest shareholders.

China Huarong Asset Management Co is gearing up a return to the offshore bond market for the third time this year. The mandate came right as China completed its first international bond in over a decade achieving a oversubscription of over 10 times.

The growth in passive asset management has been one of the biggest trends in equity markets over the past decade. Savers are constantly told passive funds are a much cheaper way to buy the market than active asset managers, who try to beat the market. The logic of that is questionable, but as Jon Hay reports, new research from UBS suggests active managers are outperforming — in Europe, at least.

Weibo Corp delighted investors on Thursday with an $800m print in the equity-linked market, the largest convertible bond by a debut US-listed Chinese issuer.

The return of Taiwanese bank liquidity to the Hong Kong and China dollar loan market is proving a boon for borrowers seeking funds for riskier deal structures. Aviation leasing companies looking for aircraft pre-delivery funding have been emboldened in particular. CMIG Aviation is the latest of that bunch to dip its toes into the offshore market, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

In an unprecedented move to prop up its ailing state-owned banks, India announced a Rp2.1tr ($32.5bn) recapitalisation this week that market participants have hailed as a game changer. But while it goes a long way in plugging capital shortfalls, it is not yet clear if the injection will result in a feast of equity issuance, writes John Loh.

Korean Housing Finance Corp (KHFC) enjoyed a strong reception for a five year covered bond this week. But the fact the deal was priced 25bp inside initial price talk yet still offered triple the pick-up to Canadian deals compared with last year, suggested a degree of uncertainty in the price discovery process.

Mongolia proved this week that it has gone some way to shaking off the twin stigmas of political uncertainty and reliance on commodity income by pulling off a liability management exercise, the new debt portion of which attracted $5.5bn of orders. Addison Gong reports.

Vincom Retail jumped the final hurdle this week to pulling off the largest ever flotation in Vietnam. The firm is on track to raise D16.1tr ($708.6m) by pricing its offer at the top of guidance, after an unusual schedule.

Investment bankers like to brag how they work for their clients, but what my decades of experience in the industry have taught me is that they, just like every other human being, actually work for themselves.