Asia Pacific

A group of Chinese city commercial banks are looking to catch the year end window for IPOs, opening books on their Hong Kong listings over the coming weeks. But thorny issues around valuations for China’s state assets mean friends and family style deals will once again rear their head, writes John Loh.

The up to $200m debut syndicated loan for the central bank of Laos has received a handful of commitments and more are expected before the deal wraps up in early December.

Three shareholders in Dongbu Insurance Co pared down their stake in the company via an accelerated share sale on the evening of November 18, raising W343.3bn ($293m).

India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given the go-ahead for the divestment of a 10% stake in Coal India, in a deal which would help the government rake in as much as $3bn.

As bankers we have all dealt with difficult clients, but some seem to enjoy taking this to a whole new level.

The China securitization market is proving to be a happy hunting ground for BMW Automotive Finance this year. Five months after a landmark four-tranche transaction, BMW sealed its return this week with a bigger and more aggressively priced Rmb3.5bn ($550m) ABS.

Philippine property developer DM Wenceslao and Associates started gauging investor appetite for its $150m-$200m IPO on November 13 as it gears up to become the biggest listing in the country this year.

Asia’s nascent covered bond market welcomed Korea Housing Finance Corp’s first transaction in more than two years on November 12. Thanks to strong support from US and European investors, books built strongly and allowed the issuer to price inside its fair value.

Zhuhai Huafa Group completed Asia’s first offshore renminbi denominated bond in close to a month, raising Rmb1.5bn ($235m) with a three year offering on November 18.

Standard Chartered is continuing to make a raft of changes to its business, dismantling its project finance operations in Hong Kong and seeing some senior departures.

Videocon Hydrocarbon, which has activities in upstream oil and gas, is tapping the loan market for a $75m three year refinancing. An aggressive margin cut compared with the loan the company is refinancing has caught the eye of bankers, especially when its sector and the financial health of its parent is taken into account. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

UBS is planning to swap senior members of its China onshore and offshore teams as it looks to further strengthen its mainland business, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.