Asia Pacific

Borrowers that ventured out to the Asia debt market on Wednesday should consider themselves lucky as the competition turned fierce on Thursday with six live deals. Beijing Properties (Holdings) and China Everbright Bank Hong Kong were among the names that managed to get ahead of the supply deluge.

Onshore RMB bonds are increasingly making their presence felt in the international stage following the launch of a pair of Bloomberg-Barclays China indices on Wednesday.

The strength of the primary debt market in Asia shows no signs of abating, with a number of borrowers heading out on Thursday for fresh dollar fundraisings.

The leads working on the government of Mongolia’s keenly-watched dollar bond have opened books, guiding investors towards a seven year deal at the 8.25% area.

International asset managers are pushing for a more liberal version of the upcoming China-Hong Kong ETF Connect, with the focus on whether ETFs will be considered as stocks or funds by the regulators.

China Orient Asset Management (International) Holdings’ proposed Rmb2.8bn ($407m) Panda bond programme on the Shanghai Stock Exchange has been cancelled.

BlackRock has received the very first RMB qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) quota under the US allocation from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, in yet another sign that global asset managers are ready to boost their China investments.

New Zealand’s ASB Finance was looking to add to a growing list of vanilla senior transaction from banks on Wednesday, hoping to raise new funding at an attractive level versus its Australian peers.

Indian film producer and distributor Eros International is putting together its inaugural dollar-denominated transaction, hiring three firms to work on the bond.

Hong Kong-listed Singamas Container Holdings has reached out to lenders for a $250m borrowing with one bank at the helm. Although the company posted a loss for the six months to June 30, 2016, its strong balance sheet due to low debt is expected to see the deal through, said bankers.

Maikun Investment Co, an entity under Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC), is borrowing $290m from a five year syndicated loan that opened for retail participation on February 17.

Malaysia-based Lotte Chemical Titan has hired a trio of banks for its potential $1bn domestic listing this year, according to a banker close to the transaction.