Asia Pacific

Three years in and Abenomics is still struggling to bring about the rebalancing of the Japanese economy pledged by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Corporate cash hoarding, a stagnation in wages and the fallout from quantitative easing means Japan’s biggest challenges could be just around the corner, reports Peter McGill.

GCL-Poly Energy Holdings and GCL New Energy Holdings are looking to raise a combined HK6bn ($774m) in separate rights issues as they seek to aid each other’s expansion plans.

Korea Western Power (Kowepo) is set to make a comeback to the dollar bond market as early as April next year, to raise funds for refinancing and new investment.

Short-end CNY swaps have been bid on the weaker CNY trend and the 1s/5s curve slope is flatter. China has expanded its ties with UAE. South Korea issued the first Panda bond by a foreign sovereign, writes Deirdre Yeung of Total Derivatives.

Standard Chartered has hired Didier von Daeniken as its global head of private banking and wealth management. He will join in March next year and will be based in Singapore.

Invitations are out for a $200m-equivalent borrowing by Yue Xiu Enterprises (Holdings), a company owned by the Guangzhou government.

Despite the progress in the usage of renminbi globally, multi-currency settlement provider CLS has yet to include the RMB on its platform. This, according to sources familiar with the review, is largely due to China's shortcoming in its payment infrastructure as well as broader concerns about China’s legal framework.

A $4.4bn loan agreement has finally been signed for the development of the Mongolian copper mine Oyu Tolgoi — a deal more than half a decade in the making.

The Asian debt market has been buzzing about Masala bonds for months but the maiden deal from an Indian issuer — widely expected in the first week of December — is yet to materialise. The slow development of offshore rupee bonds, however, is a good thing for what could potentially be a big market in the future.

The South Korean government became the first sovereign credit to price a Panda bond on December 15. The country raised Rmb3bn ($467m) from the three year, which saw at least one offshore investor participating, sources close to the deal told GlobalCapital Asia’s sister publication, GlobalRMB.

New York Stock Exchange listed Trina Solar is the latest Chinese company to announce plans to go private, and has picked Industrial Bank as the financial adviser and arranger of the debt financing.

Linzhou Jian Zong Construction & Engineering Co is planning to float in Hong Kong via Guotai Junan Capital as sole sponsor, having filed a listing application with the city’s bourse.