Asia Pacific

Nomura’s head of investment banking for Asia ex-Japan is retiring from the bank, one of a number of senior staff who are set to leave the firm, according to internal memos seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

United Overseas Bank sold a landmark transaction this week, printing the first euro-denominated covered bond from Asia, and plans to become a frequent issuer in the market.

IBM exited its entire position in Chinese tech firm Lenovo this week, raising HK$1.17bn ($150m) via a block sale. It was able to offload the stock at the top end of guidance after a flood of demand from Asian hedge funds.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp sold half its stake in India’s Kotak Mahindra Capital this week, raising Rp20.69bn ($300m) in the year’s first block trade in the country. And in a rare case, the deal managed to bypass the problem of slippage typical with sell-downs in India. Jonathan Breen reports.

Indonesia Eximbank is asking banks for options to refinance a loan raised in 2013, with talks involving the issuance of a new loan or a bond.

Bond Connect is one of the key schemes of the Hong Kong Exchange Group (HKEX) as it embarks on an ambitious plans to act as a gateway between China and the rest of the world. The programme will act as a gateway for financial institutions who don’t want direct access to China’s bond market as well as a launch pad for indices and derivative products, said chief executive Charles Li.

The CME Group will launch trading of a new dollar index futures contract in April, in collaboration with Bloomberg, with the new index including the offshore RMB (CNH) as one of its currencies.

Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation will become the third issuer from Singapore to set up a covered bond programme, its head of funding confirmed with GlobalCapital’s sister publication The Cover on Tuesday. Though similarly rated to Singapore’s other two issuers, OCBC’s business model is somewhat different.

The financial services arm of US automaker Ford has launched bookbuilding for its maiden foray into the Singapore dollar bond market.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange's 2015 revenues were bolstered by a jump in listings fees as it saw the most IPOs of any bourse in the world, according to its annual results published on Wednesday.

IBM is looking to offload its entire shareholding in Chinese tech firm Lenovo, launching a HK$1.16bn ($150m) block on Wednesday evening.

India's Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals has raised a loan of $425m from three lenders and intends to use the money to set up a plant in the country.