Asia Pacific

China plans to allow foreign central banks to participate in its onshore foreign exchange market, premier Li Keqiang said in his keynote speech at the World Economic Forum held in Dalian on Thursday. It supports last month’s statement from the People’s Bank of China’s (PBoC) that qualified foreign entities are welcomed in China’s onshore FX market.

A $165m triple-tranche loan for CVC-sponsored Asia Education Investment has been allocated, with three lenders joining during general syndication. The response was considered muted by some but the leads said they only had a limited portion to sell down to begin with.

Hong Kong Tian Yuan Manganese International Trade, which sent out invitations for a $150m loan on Monday, is understood to have now cancelled the transaction.

Summarecon Investment Property (SIP), a unit of Indonesian property giant Summarecon Agung, is looking to raise $200m-$250m in an IPO, with banks on the trade expecting to open books in October or November.

The Indian equity capital market has record its first large trade following the summer slowdown, with Indiabulls Housing Finance executing a qualified institutional placement (QIP) on Wednesday. While the share sale is only scheduled to officially close at the end of the week, the outcome is already a foregone conclusion with pricing fixed, books anchored and a $100m increase option taken up by the company to raise $600m.

Asian bond issuers have finally decided to venture back into the market with a trio of investment grade names opening books to dollar deals. Export-Import Bank of China (Chexim), Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Korea Development Bank are vying for attention in the first test of investor demand in three weeks.

Indiabulls Housing Finance is out with the first large follow-on offering of the post-summer season, with the mortgage lender launching a Rp33.30bn ($500m) deal on Wednesday.

Unicharm, a Japanese maker of nappies and sanitary towels, launched an unusual ¥50bn ($419m) convertible bond on Tuesday September 8, with an exceptionally high offer price of 111.5.

The Export-Import Bank of China (Chexim) has mandated banks for a US dollar bond, which will be issued under an MTN programme that comes backed by loans.

China is planning to introduce new circuit breakers as it seeks to put a floor under the recent wild fluctuations in its equities market, which has seen successive rounds of panic selling erode confidence in its once-high flying A-share market.

The Republic of the Philippines has pulled off a mammoth Ps263bn ($5.6bn) transaction, switching investors out of existing domestic bonds into new notes, with bondholders flooding in despite a volatile economic backdrop. The sovereign’s liability management exercise was well worth the effort with savings of about Ps2.4bn expected in the first year.

Tata Steel’s plans to reprice a portion of a $3.1bn loan it closed in 2014 has hit roadblocks, with some lenders on the original syndicate pushing back on a steep price cut. The rebellion is reassuring and shows that despite thinning margins, credit fundamentals are not being overlooked by syndicated loans bankers.