Asia Pacific

A South Korean deal kicked open the Asian block market this week but complications in the execution have set a negative tone for the country’s equity capital markets, where numerous share sales are expected in 2016. Jonathan Breen reports.

Jiangsu NewHeadLine (NHL) broke new ground this week, selling the first high yield bond from a local government financing vehicle. Market participants expect this to be the first of many to come, as the asset class offers both a government link and a yield pick-up over investment grade counterparts.

The Chinese circuit breaker mechanism shut down stock trading for the second time in just four days on January 7. Despite the 12% drop in the Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) since end of 2015, Macquarie expects MSCI to finally green light A-shares inclusion for its popular global stock indices in June.

Swire Properties received a good reception for its $500m bond on January 6, capturing an order book that was more than three times bigger thanks to its safe haven status in a volatile market.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has increased the size of its latest loan to $325m from $300m after a few more lenders joined the deal at a later stage.

Latin American development bank CAF (Corporación Andina de Fomento) sold its first ever bond marketed as an SRI deal on Tuesday with a “Water Bond” issued in Uridashi format and denominated in Turkish Lira and South African Rand.

Competition between derivatives exchanges is intensifying, giving rise to a rash of product and platform launches in 2015, as well as geographical expansion. But 2016 will be dominated by regulatory deadlines for electronic trading. As Dan Alderson reports, exchanges that best prepare market participants to meet these requirements will be the ones that will win out.

The World Bank printed a five year Kangaroo note on Wednesday to kick off the Australian dollar market for the year, which could be set for a bumper couple of months.

Oil trader Vitol is syndicating a $3bn loan with a margin of 185bp and should complete the deal by the end of the month, according to a banker involved.

A trio of Chinese companies are seeking to list in Hong Kong, having filed draft prospectuses with the city’s stock exchange on Tuesday.

Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia is set to make its first outing to the international bond market having mandated three banks to arrange a series of fixed income meetings.

The Chinese auto ABS market is revving up for 2016 with Volkswagen poised to launch a Rmb2.99bn ($460m) Driver China Three next week.