Asia Pacific

Brazilian energy company Petrobras has kicked off global syndication for a $1bn facility, which it is borrowing through its overseas arm Petrobras Netherlands.

India’s central bank will allow the country’s lenders to invest in real estate and infrastructure investment trusts, the latest in a series of regulations aimed at bringing the asset class to life.

The precise scope of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) remains a bit of a mystery, but there are those arguing the scheme is important to the next phase of RMB internationalisation (RMBi). Yet, the beneficial impact on RMB usage for trade and investment is yet to be seen.

Every year, our sister publication Asiamoney carries out an Offshore RMB Poll. As part of that process, the magazine asks the market for its thoughts on important renminbi topics. In this third year, we received around 2,300 valid responses, up 3% on a year ago. The ten questions included a new one on the inclusion of onshore RMB assets in global indices. Here we present the answers to the first five questions.

Yorkshire Building Society defied concerns around the UK’s decision to leave the European Union this week, issuing a well oversubscribed covered bond that was very broadly distributed and that priced almost flat to its curve.

Equity arrangers in Asia are upbeat after volumes in the first quarter easily trumped last year’s deal flow. With conditions ripe for a strong rebound in 2017, the view across the street is that investor sentiment has turned a corner, as institutional interest trickles back into ECM after a long absence. John Loh reports.

Ant Financial subsidiary Alipay (Hong Kong) Holding has launched a $3bn debut syndication via a nine-member bookrunner group. The strong showing at the top is driven by opportunities to cross-sell higher fee-generating products such as private banking, equity advisory and underwriting services to the Alibaba Group-affiliated borrower, reports Shruti Chaturvedi.

Two groups of vendors exited their holdings in two Asian firms this week, with block trades in Hong Kong-listed Imax China Holding and South Korea’s Kakao Corp raising a combined $278.1m.

Chinese property developer Jingrui Holdings leveraged off a yield-hunting environment and its strong financial improvement to raise $400m from its return to the offshore debt market this week.

ING Life Insurance Korea launched bookbuilding for its W1.3tr ($1.2bn) IPO on Thursday, in a deal helmed by five firms.

Chinese toll road operator Zhejiang Expressway Co took a road less travelled by Asian companies in the equity-linked market this week. It debuted with a euro-denominated convertible bond, becoming one of just a handful of euro CB issuers from the region in the past decade, writes Jonathan Breen.

Indonesia’s triple-C rated Indika Energy priced a $265m bond on Monday on the back of a nearly five times subscribed book. The issuer’s rating story was complicated by downgrades over the past year, but investors were willing to consider its likely future as a B2 rated credit. Morgan Davis reports.