Asia Pacific

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is planning to streamline the country’s debt capital markets by making details of onshore bond transactions available online. The move has been largely welcomed as it will inject some much-needed transparency into India’s markets while hopefully wooing more foreign investors, writes Narae Kim.

The hotly anticipated IPO of South Korean weapons manufacturer LIG Nex1 has been pushed back for two weeks due to a government investigation into an anti-tank missile it had developed.

A $165m triple-tranche loan for CVC-sponsored Asia Education Investment is due to close soon with commitments coming in from a couple of banks during general syndication — an outcome criticised by many.

Daiwa Capital Markets has hired a former head of sterling credit trading from Lloyds in a bid to increase the Japanese group’s presence in the currency.

Cigarette maker Philip Morris flagged off pre-deal investor education for an up to Rph26.70tr ($1.92bn) follow-on transaction in its Indonesian subsidiary HM Sampoerna on September 2, with the process set to run for two weeks.

Russia’s Vnesheconombank is in talks to sell Panda bonds, but the note will be placed next year at the earliest, said a source close to the borrower.

Following the recent devaluation of the renminbi, E Fund Management suffered some redemptions from its RMB qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) funds. Despite that, a more market-driven FX pricing mechanism is positive for further development of RQFII in the long run, says Jeffrey Qi, portfolio manager at the world’s second largest RQFII quota holder.

The Chinese authorities have made several steps towards the full opening of the capital account over the years. But mounting evidence of China’s economic slowdown has made those efforts look increasingly erratic. A step by step approach would be nothing to sneer at, but the authorities’ dance of reforms followed by shameless back-stepping risks transforming the whole business into a farce.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co (SPDB) is due to start roadshow for a proposed dollar bond this week.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has bolstered its Asia Pacific investment banking team with a new hire from Morgan Stanley.

Bloomberg Tradebook Japan has launched an electronic trading platform and Tradeweb Markets’ regulated marketplace for trading interest rate swaps in Japan has hosted its first trade in support of Japan’s new mandatory trading rules.

Jiangxi Jiangling Chassis Co’s IPO on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) is off the table, with the S$49m ($35m) transaction falling victim to the global sell-off in equity markets that took hold last week and saw investors running for the hills on all things China.