Asia Pacific

India’s Avenue Supermarts has opened the gates to its potential Rp18.7bn ($280.6m) IPO after securing nearly a third of the offering with anchor investors.

Mainboard IPOs on the Singapore Exchange must allocate at least 5% to retail investors, starting in May, the bourse said this week.

After launching an indirect connect scheme last October, Deutsche Borse's Clearstream platform is now prepping a direct route into the China interbank bond market (CIBM) for its client base by next year, Philip Brown, the firm's co-CEO, told GlobalRMB.

Guorui Properties and Kangde Xin Composite Material Group are preparing for their respective debuts in the international debt market.

RHB Bank’s Asia head of institutional equities Lena Yong has parted ways with the Malaysian bank following a restructuring of its wholesale equities division.

HSBC is understood to be considering transferring a banker from London to take over leveraged and acquisition finance responsibilities for Asia Pacific. This follows the departures of senior Hong Kong-based bankers from the levfin and sponsor coverage teams last month.

Citi has appointed a new markets and securities services head for Hong Kong, tapping a veteran banker to the position.

Daewoo Pakistan Express Bus Service is planning an up to $48m IPO in the country amid expectations of a pick up in share sales this year.

ICBC International Holdings, through Horsepower Finance, raised $650m on Monday, reaching its $1.2bn debt-raising cap given by regulators last year.

As the market buckles up for a March rate hike, some fixed income investors are playing it safe, becoming price sensitive to new issues. Against that backdrop, China SCE Property Holdings priced a five non call three on Monday with guidance unchanged throughout the day.

Singapore’s status as the go-to hub for Asia’s real estate investment trusts appears to be under some threat, with two Asian issuers taking their business to Hong Kong and Indonesia in recent weeks. But concerns that Singapore could lose its Reit crown are overblown — the asset class is set to remain well under its dominion.

Chinese onshore bonds are eligible to join the Citi Fixed Income Indices for the first time, the bank said this week. This follows last week’s publication of new guidelines by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe), which opened the door to foreign investors trading FX derivatives onshore.