Asia Pacific

China’s authorities are moving to liberalise the commodities market and introduce renminbi pricing for more and more asset classes as the country puts its focus on furthering global usage of the currency.

India’s Parag Milk Foods has added an extra three days to the bookbuilding period of its Rp7.7bn ($115.6m) IPO despite being oversubscribed, in a last ditch attempt to woo more institutional interest.

As the $100bn-plus IPO of Saudi Aramco nears its launch, the UK’s Telegraph has most recently hinted at a three-way foreign listing, conducted across London, New York and Hong Kong. Columnist Philippe Espinasse looks at the practicalities and advantages (as well as disadvantages) for the oil behemoth of listing in Asia.

Bank of China International has hired Daniel Ng as head of the investment banking division, according to sources.

BOC Aviation will launch bookbuilding for its $2bn Hong Kong IPO next Monday and is in the process of finalising the involvement of cornerstone investors, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China plans to build its tier two capital buffer and will ask shareholders to approve the proposal in a general meeting.

Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings has been given the nod to float on the Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX), putting it in line to become the country's second ever listing.

A weaker than expected set of non-farm payroll data last week did little to deter issuers on Monday as a pair of borrowers awarded mandates.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation is teaming up with Korea Exchange (KRX) to build a trade repository solution in Korea.

China Securities Regulatory Commission has flagged concerns at the trend of overseas-listed Chinese companies returning to the Mainland for A-share IPOs and the increased use of shell companies for such floats.

Fullerton Health’s planned $200m IPO will no longer feature Morgan Stanley as one of the leads, leaving JP Morgan and UBS as the two banks handling the Singapore-bound listing.

There is hope yet for special purpose acquisition companies in Malaysia but the regulations may need tweaking after Sona Petroleum became the first Spac to have its planned acquisition rejected by shareholders.