Asia Pacific

Presiding over the fastest growth in the area

ASB Bank, the fully owned subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, extended its curve on Tuesday with a €500m seven year covered bond. But the deal received less than half the demand than ANZ New Zealand did in September despite offering a pick-up to it.

The Spanish bank has mandated leads for a roadshow to market what will be its first covered bond in six years.

Two private equity-backed firms in India have filed for IPOs to raise around Rp16bn ($239m), with Continental Warehousing Corp and Prataap Snacks submitting their applications to the regulator.

Malaysia’s Sime Darby is out with an accelerated bookbuild to raise as much as MR2.4bn ($571.1m) via Maybank as sole bookrunner.

Hong Kong has climbed to the top of the charts again for IPO volumes globally, but it is a victory that rings hollow. The city got there mostly thanks to the assistance of friends and family in the Mainland, as Chinese investors helped push Chinese listings across the line. It is time for the market to move on.

The Chinese Panda bond market is enjoying plenty of attention, having just passed the one year anniversary of its comeback in September 2015. However, while market participants expect the exuberance to continue, they have called for credit reforms to diversify the investor base.

Robust G3 issuance in Asia ex-Japan in September delivered the second highest monthly deal volume on record. But the market has witnessed a power shift, with investors now calling the shots, writes Addison Gong.

With the renminbi now officially part of the special drawing rights basket, China is set to push on with its goal of making the SDR a real-world investment and reserve asset. But the obstacles to that plan are daunting.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s head of southeast Asia equity capital markets has left the firm, amid a wider reshuffle of its Asian investment banking business that resulted in a number of departures.

Sri Lankan commercial lender Sampath Bank has wrapped up its latest fundraising at $100m, fully using a $50m greenshoe on the back of demand from Middle Eastern and Indian lenders.

Shandong International Trust Co has submitted an IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for an expected $300m offering.