Asia Pacific

It was the best of wines, it was the worst of wines. It was the age of Riesling, it was the age of cheap plonk from 7/11. It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity that anyone would charge you that much for something that tasted like Lambrini.

Imagine trying to explain stock markets to an alien or an intelligent caveman, someone who has grown up in a world without the flicker of red and green numbers, the theatre of shareholder meetings, the strange spectacle of Jim Cramer’s pre-scheduled rage.

Alan Roch, Standard Chartered's head of bond syndication for Asia, has resigned after about three years at the bank.

South Korea's Shinhan Bank became the latest Asian bank to sell a sustainability bond this month. It raised $500m from its transaction, but felt some pressure from the risk-off sentiment in the region’s credit market.

Guotai Junan Securities Co faced a choppy market backdrop to price a $500m bond on Wednesday, becoming one of only a handful of Chinese issuers to head offshore this week.

JPM’s Apac IB vice-chairman steps down – StanChart's Roch exits – Shah resigns from CS – MUFG names ESG finance head – UBS hires for syndicate team

Several European banks’ noses were put out of joint this week by research from Jefferies, which suggested a very different ranking of banks’ ESG characteristics from that investors usually get from rating providers. The study argued commercial ESG ratings on banks are not fit for purpose.

Malaysia’s IPO market is set to pick up, with at least two chunky listings in the works, raising optimism among bankers for busy second and third quarters.

BIMB Holdings, a Malaysian financial holding company, has raised MR795.6m ($192.4m) from a primary placement of shares, part of a group-wide restructuring that is expected to be completed by August.

Singapore’s agribusiness company Wilmar International has returned to the loan market for a borrowing of up to $1bn.

The US, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea have joined the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, the collaborative group striving to reshape economic policy-making for the battle against global warming.

Demand for BPCE's latest Kangaroo note was skewed towards the preferred senior format this week, with non-preferred paper only making up A$125m ($96.0m) of the A$750m deal. The French firm was also joined in the market by Rabobank, which sold its first Aussie deal after an almost two year absence.