Asia Pacific

Poultry feed producer Charoen Pokphand (CP) Indonesia’s $350m dual currency loan, which comes with a $50m greenshoe, has entered general syndication.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) announced on Wednesday that it planned to introduce the first RMB denominated aluminium, zinc and copper mini futures on December 1.

Bank of China released on October 16 its latest cross border RMB index (CRI) report, which fell by 13% to 202 points due to lower usage of RMB for cross border trade settlement and direct investment.

Suncorp-Metway has priced its first covered bond deal since November 2012. The two tranche fixed and floating rate Australian dollar transaction offered an attractive 12bp spread pick up to where the previous covered bond issued by Royal Bank of Canada had been trading.

A new report by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce highlights the business benefits of launching an RMB hub in North America. Should Canada get there first, the report estimates that the country would see a $30bn boost in exports over the next ten years.

Hang Seng Indexes and Markit this week launched the Hang Seng Markit iBoxx Offshore RMB Bond Index family (HSM iBoxx), which includes more than 600 indices classified according to criteria such as issuer types, sectors, rating, maturity and size.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) this week launched FX futures contracts for Chinese onshore and offshore renminbi (USD/CNH and CNY/USD). Transactions in the new RMB futures achieved a first day volume of 1,836 contracts on October 20, or approximately Rmb1.1bn in notional value ($180m), said SGX.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) was set to price Australia’s first euro benchmark covered bond in single digit territory over mid-swaps on Tuesday. The deal, which was announced at short notice and which was slow to build early traction, nevertheless managed to attract new investors, though at 14%, bank demand was disappointing given the bonds are now eligible for their liquidity buffers.

Suncorp-Metway has mandated leads for a five year Australian dollar covered bond, the third in the currency this year and the issuer’s first since November 2012. The deal is expected to be launched this week.

The high level of demand for the UK’s debut offshore renminbi bond this week, the first from a non-Chinese sovereign, will be encouraging for other countries looking at printing in the internationalising currency. Two more are thought to be looking at selling renminbi bonds.

Yunnan Energy Investment barely made it past the finishing line with its debut offshore renminbi bond on October 15, with weak market sentiment threatening to derail the deal.

Direct onshore trading of the renminbi (RMB) and the Singapore dollar (SGD) is expected to kick off very soon, and could come as early as this month, two Singapore-based sources have told GlobalRMB.