Asia Pacific

Equity markets had an inauspicious start to 2016, as China triggered yet another global sell-off and a new circuit breaker only added to the volatility. Monday was officially the worst-ever start for Chinese shares, but market participants shouldn’t read too much into the turbulence.

French lender Natixis has bolstered its Asia Pacific team with a pair of senior appointments to its fixed income and equity units.

Korea Midland Power Co (Komipo) has mandated three banks for a dollar offering ahead of the redemption of an outstanding note due in March.

A $300m borrowing for Iris World Enterprises, an affiliate of Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, has been signed among eight lenders less than a month after launching into syndication.

Struggling Indonesian company Trikomsel Oke has had its debt payment obligations suspended, according to an official statement released by the firm on January 4.

The sell-off in the A-share market on January 4 might well scare off Hong Kong investors from buying Chinese securities via the new Mutual Recognition of Funds (MRF) scheme, but retail investors in China might now have increased appetite for offshore investments available via the MRF’s southern channel, according to market participants.

Any hopes among European credit traders of easing back into 2016 with a peaceful first week were shattered from the outset on Monday, as spreads gapped wider due to China’s stock market woes and oil price volatility arising from Saudi Arabia’s new stand-off with Iran.

A much-touted circuit breaker meant to curb wild swings in China’s A-share market was triggered on Monday, as a sharp sell-down set off an exchange-wide trading suspension.

Virscend Education Co launched the institutional bookbuild for its HK$2.19bn ($282.50m) Hong Kong IPO on Monday, even as the slump in Chinese shares triggered a market-wide trading halt and sent global equities tumbling.

South Korea's Samsung Engineering has set the initial price for a W1.2tr ($1.0bn) rights issue, which is expected to launch by March.

Indian lender Ujjivan Financial Services and healthcare firm Thyrocare Technologies have filed draft prospectuses for IPOs with the country’s capital markets regulator.

Dalian Port Co is waiting for market volatility to recede before completing an H-share placement that could raise around HK$5.83bn ($752.05m) based on its market capitalisation.