Asia Pacific

Woori Card Co, a South Korean financial services firm, targeted investors in Taiwan on Wednesday for a $200m social bond.

HSBC has agreed to tighten its policies on climate transition and coal funding, in response to a shareholder motion calling on it to phase out fossil fuel financing. The move underlines the power investors have to accelerate change on environmental and social issues using shareholder votes, and could raise the bar for other banks.

While European banks have been ducking the covered bond market in favour of central bank liquidity, issuance from the asset class’s newer markets has also been light, but for different reasons. Attention is now on South Korea and Japan, which are seen as the most promising sources of new issuance, according to a senior S&P ratings official.

US-listed Autohome, an online car marketplace, has wrapped up its HK$5.34bn ($687.8m) secondary offering in Hong Kong, pricing the deal even as its US stock dived amid a market rout.

Singapore's Temasek Holdings and its wholly owned Azalea Asset Management sold the fourth iteration of the Astrea collateralised fund obligation (CFO) this week. They raised more than $450m from the institutional portion of the deal, using a tried-and-tested structure.

Shaoxing Shangyu State-owned Capital Investment and Operation Co priced a $500m international bond on Tuesday, in a trade that ended up resembling a club deal after investors dropped out due to aggressive price tightening.

Chinese internet company Baidu has filed updated offer documents for its Hong Kong secondary listing, the final step before it launches its potential multi-billion-dollar deal.

The Asian Development Bank made a rare outing in China’s interbank market this week. The Rmb2bn ($307m) bond, priced significantly below the onshore benchmark, ended the multilateral development bank’s absence from the domestic Chinese market for over a decade.

Chinese state-owned Chongqing Energy Investment Group Co has revealed that it has overdue payments on some of its onshore bank debt, confirming rumours that caused a plunge in its dollar bond price and triggered volatility in related names last week.

The prospect of investors exerting real pressure on companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including divesting from big polluters, came a step closer on Wednesday with the release of the Net Zero Investment Framework, a map to guide investors on the journey to carbon neutrality.

China’s Guangdong Lingyi iTech Manufacturing Co, a company focused on making magnetic materials, electric motors and electric wires for automobiles, computers and mobile phones, has hit the market for a $150m loan.

South Korean e-commerce company Coupang has increased the price range for its US IPO a day before wrapping up the deal, now putting proceeds of up to $4.08bn within reach.