Asia Pacific

Welcome to Trump-week, as the president-elect makes final preparations before being sworn into office this Friday. Trump dominated weekend headlines by declaring that the long-standing One China policy is now up for negotiation. In the renminbi markets, meanwhile, the week is off to a slow start as the currency stabilises, and Chinese authorities discuss the future role of the Shanghai free trade zone.

There is little doubt the RMB had a tough 12 months. But despite the headwinds, China has managed to push through landmark reforms to the capital account and more initiatives are in store for 2017. In the first part of this outlook, market participants discuss how RMB internationalisation (RMBi) will benefit from opening up of onshore hedging products and the far-reaching impact of recently-established New York hub.

In the second part of the GlobalRMB’s outlook on renminbi internationalisation in 2017, market participants discuss the far-reaching impact of the recently-established New York hub.

In this round-up, RMB-denominated cross-border trade settlement suffers a big setback in 2016, turnover in the Chinese interbank foreign exchange (FX) markets revolves almost entirely around dollar trades, and GF International launches a China A-shares fund on the London Stock Exchange. Plus a recap of our coverage.

The Republic of Korea became the first Asian sovereign out of the gate in 2017, sealing a $1bn 10 year bond on Thursday against a backdrop of political turmoil in the country.

Cigarette package printer Amvig Holdings, which launched a HK$1.6bn ($206m) equivalent dual currency refinancing in December, has allocated the borrowing after 12 banks joined lead ANZ to form the syndicate.

India’s second largest stock exchange BSE is set to launch bookbuilding for its potential $200m listing in the last week of January, according to a red herring prospectus filed by the bourse.

SEA Holdings, Guangzhou R&F Properties and a Changchun local government financing vehicle took advantage of the abundant liquidity in the bond market by locking in funds on Thursday.

Malaysia’s Maybank has reshuffled the top ranks in its investment bank, naming two senior executives to lead regional equity and debt functions.

China has come in for a lot of criticism for introducing more capital controls since the start of the year in order to combat outflows. While such restrictions clearly do not fit under the headline of financial liberalisation, the market needs to understand that they are a necessary evil for China to have enough time to correct economic imbalances.

A dual currency financing to back Indian company Intas Pharmaceuticals’ acquisition of a portfolio of assets in the UK and Ireland has attracted subscriptions totalling $350m, with banks given another week to commit.

Singapore’s Mapletree Investments raised S$625m ($438m) from its debt outing on Thursday, marking the first public Singapore dollar bond of the year.