Asia Pacific

Electricite du Laos Generation Public Company (EDL Gen) is looking to sell a $300m bond in Thailand late next week, and has mandated two banks to lead the deal.

India’s RBL Bank opened books on Friday for an up to Rp12.1bn ($180.8m) IPO — the first listing from a bank in the country in more than five years.

In this round up, Stock Connect flows boosted by Shenzhen Connect announcement, mutual recognition of funds (MRF) broadens fund selection, and Bank of China’s cross-border RMB index picks up in June. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB's top stories this week.

The Indian government has picked four banks to run its planned stake sale in Housing and Urban Development Corp, which could raise up to $250m, according to sources close to the deal.

CME Group has reported the first trading of its US dollar Malaysian crude palm oil futures contracts it launched last month.

Though there are early signs the recent rally in sterling bond spreads may be fading, ASB Finance this week became the latest bank to take advantage of very attractive funding opportunities in the currency.

Agro-industrial company Royal Industries Indonesia has failed to pay the first principal instalment on a $380m loan borrowed in June 2015. Although the incident was driven by circumstances unique to the borrower, market observers reckoned banks would now be more wary of lending to smaller, privately-held firms from the country. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

Chinese conglomerate HNA officially filed notification of its acquisition of Swiss airline caterer Gategroup this week in a move which market participants hope could provide much needed issuance for a subdued levfin market.

The offshore renminbi bond market has struggled this year thanks to a weakening currency and cheaper funding costs onshore. But a successful deal has raised hopes that issuance may pick up and that dim sum could yet become the go-to market for some borrowers. Narae Kim and Addison Gong report.

BOC Aviation has ended an eight month break from the loan market, sending out a request for proposals for a $1.5bn revolver.

Myanmar is preparing to welcome the third company to its stock exchange next week, which like its predecessors will not raise any new capital. But the country is in the midst of updating its foreign investment laws and the growth of foreign inflows is expected to spur real IPOs, writes Jonathan Breen.

Citi has made a couple of senior appointments to its business in Asia Pacific including naming Servaas Chorus as its new head of global capital management for the region.