Asia Pacific

Inside the office of Spondoolicks Emerging Market Bond Fund, May 24.

Crédit Agricole issued a callable Samurai bond this week that will reset to a spread over the local government bond curve, as the yen market transitions away from Libor ahead of its cessation later this year.

Hong Kong was once renowned for its nightlife, but Covid-19 and its restrictions have killed the legendary carousing in SoHo and partying in the infamous establishments of Wan Chai.

Kintor Pharmaceutical raised HK$1.17bn ($151m) on Wednesday from a top-up share placement, while a co-founder simultaneously trimmed his stake in the company.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange scrapped a record 26 corporate ABS deal applications this week. They included Rmb18bn ($2.82bn) of deals from Ant Group’s two consumer lending units — seven months after the company’s landmark IPO was suspended. Addison Gong reports.

Silicon wafer maker GlobalWafers raised $1bn this week from its debut in the equity-linked market, selling the largest convertible bond from a Taiwanese issuer in more than a decade.

Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group, which tapped the loan market for a $7.2bn bridge loan last year to acquire retail giant Tesco’s Asia business, is now seeking covenant waivers on the fundraising. The move — which bankers say is triggered in part by CP’s plan to offload some of its newly-gained stake in Tesco — has hurt lenders’ confidence in the Thai conglomerate and raised questions around its strategy. Pan Yue reports.

Westpac New Zealand attracted a high quality order book for a covered bond issue on Wednesday but it was slow to build and thinly subscribed, leading some to conclude that the market lacked confidence.

SAIC Motor Corp’s auto financing arm is bringing a rare green auto loan deal to China’s ABS market. It is set to price the Rmb910m ($142m) transaction next week.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange on Tuesday cancelled applications for 26 corporate ABS deals, including two planned transactions from Ant Group’s consumer lending units.

A handful of Chinese investment grade names bombarded the dollar debt market on Tuesday, taking more than $2bn.

CMB International Capital Corp, China Merchants Bank's wholly-owned offshore financial services platform, jumped into the offshore market on Tuesday to raise $600m.