Asia Pacific

Utkarsh Small Finance Bank is planning an IPO of new and existing stock worth up to Rp13.5bn ($185.8m).

Aluminium producer China Hongqiao Group has returned to the loan market for a $200m borrowing.

Zhihu, China’s largest question-and-answer platform, has set its New York Stock Exchange IPO in motion.

European equity capital markets continued to reel from volatility across the Atlantic on Friday. A sell-off in tech stocks is making the block trade market difficult and a popular IPO suffered on its first day of trading.

In this round-up, smaller Chinese firms see the slowest growth in manufacturing and services activity since mid-2020, the head of the Chinese banking and insurance regulator is wary of bubbles bursting in foreign markets, and the onshore sale of the so-called ‘carbon neutrality bonds’ moves from the interbank market to the smaller exchange market.

In this special round-up on China’s annual Two Sessions parliamentary meeting, the central government sets a conservative annual growth target for the Chinese economy in 2021, signals a modest tightening in fiscal and monetary policies, and plans to broaden regulatory oversight of the fintech sector.

Indian agrochemical firm UPL Corp has opened the country’s first sustainability-linked loan into syndication.

Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank has closed its debut offshore borrowing at $71m.

Sinic Service (Holdings) is gearing up for a listing in Hong Kong, adding further momentum to the IPO market of Chinese property management service providers.

A consortium led by Malaysia’s TTL Energy and Engie Asia Pacific, the regional arm of French energy firm Engie, has raised a RM342m ($84m) green loan to support the development of a solar plant in Malaysia.

Max Healthcare Institute, one of India’s largest hospital chain operators, is looking to raise up to Rp12bn ($164m) from a qualified institutional placement that was launched on Thursday.