Asia Pacific

Falling costs, increasing transparency requirements and the advent of new technological solutions are encouraging traders in key Asian markets to make the switch from voice to electronic FX trading

Electricite du Laos Generation Public Company (EDL Gen) has started building books for a $300m bond it is looking to price in Thailand on September 2. The deal is progressing well, attracting interest from a wide array of investors including high net worth individuals.

The government of Sri Lanka’s three year borrowing has turned out to be a hit, allowing it to hike the loan to $700m, beyond the $500m it was eyeing after a greenshoe.

Local outfit Myanmar Citizens Bank officially floated its shares on the Yangon Stock Exchange on Friday, the third ever listing on the YSX.

The Reserve Bank of India is allowing banks to issue offshore rupee-denominated bonds to raise Basel III tier two (T2) and additional tier one (AT1) debt, as part of a series of measures to develop the country’s fixed income and currency markets.

In this round-up, CIMB signs a custodian deal with China Construction Bank to facilitate investments into China, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) plans membership expansion and the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) starts publishing daily exchange rates for the RMB against the British pound, euro and Japanese yen. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB’s top stories this week.

Baoxin Auto Group has hiked the size of its latest borrowing to $750m from $550m, after its acquisition by China Grand Auto made the deal more appealing, according to bankers.

The Hong Kong office of law firm Dentons has bulked up its capital markets group with a new partner.

Bank of Communications Co is moving ahead with the IPO of its investment banking subsidiary BoCom International in Hong Kong, after its board approved the planned $300m listing.

Indonesia’s Cikarang Listrindo and Hong Kong’s Far East Consortium International have set sights on the international bond market, having appointed banks to work on their respective dollar offerings.

Eastspring Investments has named Phil Stockwell as chief executive officer for Singapore, effective September 1.

The China cross-border interbank payment system (CIPS) may struggle to get a large number of banks to sign up as direct participants, but with new features such as netting set to be added, it will become an essential component of China’s renminbi internationalisation strategy.