Asia Pacific

The Singapore government’s investment arm Temasek Holdings ventured into the euro-denominated bond market for the first time this week with a dual tranche offering driven by reverse enquiry.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has flung open the doors to China’s bond market by allowing almost all types of foreign financial institutions and asset managers to directly invest in the onshore inter-bank bond market without a quota. The move is a positive one for capital markets liberalisation but leaves a question mark over the future of schemes like QFII and RQFII.

Institutional investors flocked to India’s Rp50.3bn ($739.3m) sell down in NTPC, with the first leg of the trade almost 2x covered, giving the government’s divestment programme an eleventh hour boost.

Nasdaq-listed Jumei International Holding is planning to finance its proposed take private transaction with a combination of loans and equity.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group successfully wrapped up Asia’s first bond that meets total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) requirements on Tuesday. By providing a strong benchmark in this new asset class, the transaction is set to encourage more issuance from Japan.

Khazanah Nasional made its inaugural appearance in the dollar sukuk market this week with a $750m transaction. But the landmark trade courted plenty of controversy around its execution and the notes’ subsequent secondary performance.

Tim Leissner, the chairman of Goldman Sachs’ southeast Asia operations, is understood to have left the bank.

Australia and New Zealand Bank has appointed David Green as the new chief executive officer for Singapore, replacing Vishnu Shahaney, who is taking up a new role at the bank.

South Korea's Doosan Bobcat, which controls US machinery maker Bobcat, has sent out a request for proposals for a domestic IPO it plans to launch this year.

Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) opened books on Wednesday for a single tranche dollar bond to be dual listed in Singapore and Taiwan. While the Korean issuer has taken this approach before in offshore renminbi, sources close to the latest deal say this is the first of its kind in dollars.

Bank of China Hong Kong sneaked in to the bond market on Tuesday with a triple-tranche dollar deal in the midst of several other well flagged competing transactions. But the Chinese lender raised a hefty $2bn, which bankers said proved that it is one of the strongest credits in the region.

Hong Kong Broadband Network has hit the syndicated loan market for HK$700m ($90m) to fund its acquisition of telecom businesses Concord Ideas and Simple Click Investments.