Asia Pacific

Infibeam is on track to become India’s first IPO from the e-commerce sector, with its Rp4.5bn ($67.9m) deal closing books this week. But the listing that was supposed to be a trailblazer has come in for criticism, as bankers traded barbs over whether the issuer made the right call on pricing and timing. John Loh reports.

Poland is considering a Panda bond issue, and is hoping to meet investors in China in the second quarter of this year for the deal, according to a source in Poland’s Ministry of Finance.

The Chinese Panda bond market is starting to heat up with a slew of corporates in the midst of preparing their respective trades.

HealthCare Global Enterprises (HGC) has raised Rp6.5bn ($97.5m) after pricing its IPO in India at the top of the range, with foreign investors taking home the bulk of the shares.

A pair of Chinese regional lenders, China Zheshang Bank and Bank of Tianjin, have created a stir in the market, pricing the year’s two largest IPOs globally. The firms raised a combined HK$20.4bn ($2.6bn) and pushed Hong Kong’s stock exchange to the top spot for primary market volume so far in 2016.

State Bank of India launched its $500m fundraising into general syndication on Tuesday via eight mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners.

Deutsche Bank has appointed Jason Cox as co-head of equity capital markets for Asia Pacific, the lender's only external hire in a new management structure for the region.

Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance has become the latest international name to make its debut in the China auto ABS market, executing a tightly priced Rmb2.5bn ($385m) trade on Tuesday.

Citi veteran David Ratliff has resigned as Asia Pacific head of the public sector group, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

HSBC has made a series of senior appointments in India, including promoting Hitendra Dave to head of global banking and markets for the country.

Two pre-IPO investors in IMAX China have raised HK$940bn ($121.2m) after offloading just under half of their holdings in the company. But in an unusual approach, the shareholders executed the sale nearly three weeks before their original lock-up periods were set to expire.

Russia is making preparations to sell an offshore renminbi bond, its debut in the currency and the government’s first international bond since 2013. But with sanctions still in place and renminbi liquidity limited in Russia, the sovereign is planning to ask China to relax one of its outbound investment schemes so that mainland investors can buy the deal.