Asia Pacific

China Resources Pharmaceutical Group has tightened the price range on its IPO, putting it on track to raise up to HK$14.8bn ($1.9bn), according to a banker on the deal.

Yuzhou Properties Co’s latest bond had a bumpy ride this week as it struggled to garner interest for a longer tenor and one of its joint global co-ordinators dropped out.

New Silkroad Culturaltainment plans to raise HK$1.5bn ($193.3m) from a proposed open offer of shares, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Brazil’s biggest producer of processed food BRF has signed up as a cornerstone investor on Cofco Meat Holdings’ HK$2.59bn ($333.9m) IPO, according to a statement from the São Paulo-based company.

Citi Asia earned $3.4bn in revenues in the third quarter of 2016, a 1% rise year-on-year. Asia was second only to North America in contributing to the bank's overall profits, with gains in wealth management, M&A and equity underwriting, and consumer business boosting performance.

ZTO Express and Samsung BioLogics are seeing bumper responses for their jumbo IPOs in the US and South Korea respectively, as bankers expect their bookbuilds to gain even more momentum.

Taiwanese solar cell manufacturer Neo Solar Power has raised $120m from a zero coupon convertible bond backed by a standby letter of credit (SBLC). The deal was driven by a hefty fall in NSP’s stock price, pushing the issuer to redeem its outstanding notes early.

A five year loan for a subsidiary of Employees Provident Fund of Malaysia has entered syndication, three months after the leads were chosen.

PNB Housing Finance and Varun Beverages are launching their IPOs in India next week to raise a combined Rp41.1bn ($616.9m).

Huai’an Traffic Holdings, the local government financing vehicle (LGFV) for the Huai’an municipal government, has locked in $300m from its inaugural international offering as investors put faith in the issuer’s strong link to the Jiangsu province.

Plans abound to connect China’s bond market with offshore counterparts but they have had little success until recently. Now Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD) is close to launching a link in the first half of 2017, Eddie Astanin, chairman of the executive board, told GlobalRMB.

Malaysia’s CIMB Group and China Galaxy Securities Co said they are in talks to form a 50:50 joint venture for their stockbroking operations.