Asia Pacific

Top 3 Offshore RMB DCM Transactions - 2012 YTD

The crisis dealt a double blow of deleveraging and falling trade to small eastern European economies, but big countries also suffered

Bangkok Bank kicked off a two week sale of subordinated notes this week, turning to local investors for Bt20bn ($650m) of funding that it could use to buyback costly long-dated dollar bonds.

Higher yields and a backdrop supportive to renminbi appreciation mean that investor demand for dim sum will pick up during what is set to be another stellar year for Asian fixed income.

Central Plaza Development built one of the year’s largest orderbooks for a dim sum deal late last week, after yield-hungry investors turned out in force for its three year offering.

Insurance companies in search of longer-dated dim sum bonds convinced Volkswagen International Finance to launch a five year renminbi deal last week, and reverse enquiry from Asian investors — as well as obvious name recognition from buyers in Europe — ensured a smooth execution for the issuer. But the five year tenor is still unlikely to become a typical choice for issuers, said bankers.

Waiting for free convertibility of the renminbi will be to ‘miss the boat’ but the opening up of the China’s capital account is already happening, says the law firm.

A move by China to liberalise rates would cause bond prices to reset, negatively impacting the the bond markers, but views are divided over when liberalisation will take place.

Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and China Construction Bank (CCB) launched three year dim sum deals on Tuesday, taking very different approaches to marketing and how to target investors — but ending up with exactly the same result.