Asia Pacific

Myanmar may be in the middle of a crisis as more than half a million Rohingya flee anti-Muslim militants. But investors are willing to look past the humanitarian crisis and find opportunities in the frontier market.

Citi has hired Guorong Jiang as chairman and head of corporate and investment banking for China, according to a press release the bank sent out on Friday.

Who does Pakistan turn to in the event of a new liquidity crisis: to China or the IMF? Widening trade and current account deficits and dwindling FX reserves could mean the South Asian country has to make up its mind sooner rather later

Big questions remain around how China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative will be financed. But experts tell GlobalMarkets the answer, or at least part of it, may be in asset-backed securitization — with Indonesia making some headway recently and China gearing up for some action.

Debt owed by India’s 29 states has doubled over the past five years to $304bn, triggering calls by analysts on the central government to impose regulations or face the danger of following China down a path of over-indebtedness

Is Afghanistan finally turning the corner? The desert country, a crossroads between Central and South Asia, has for so long strived for stability and security and found neither

Rating: A1/A

General Insurance Corp looks set to close the largest Indian IPO in seven years, after offering investors a whopping Rp113.7bn ($1.7bn) deal — and managing to cover 75% of the book on the first day. That was a rare show of early demand for an Indian listing, but the deal was simply too big to ignore, said local bankers. Jonathan Breen reports.

Cornerstone investors are becoming increasingly common in overseas loan syndications, especially those involving Indian borrowers. While some may argue that this goes against the true purpose of syndication, which is to spread risk, loans bankers believe the change is for the better as it introduces borrowers to sturdy lenders for future funding needs. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

Chailease Holding Co’s offering of global depositary shares, worth as much as $314m, has been covered to the full size including the greenshoe, said sources close to the transaction.

Chinese capital market bankers will be keeping a close eye on a crucial meeting of the country’s Communist Party next week, as China’s president, Xi Jinping, attempts to consolidate his power. Although analysts and economists admit it is hard to read the tea leaves, most think the country’s financial market reform efforts are going to gather pace in the next five years. Paolo Danese reports.

Bank of Zhengzhou Co’s inaugural offshore additional tier one (AT1) bond drew attention for the wrong reasons this week, after last-minute changes in the syndicate group — including one bank being dropped from the global co-ordinator group. Addison Gong reports.