Asia Pacific

A handful of Chinese companies managed to hit the bond market on Wednesday for new deals, ahead of not just the upcoming Chinese New Year break but also the jumbo outing launched by Alibaba Group Holding on Thursday.

The march of sustainability-linked bonds continued on Wednesday, as Surbana Jurong, the architecture and engineering consultancy that has built more than 1m homes in Singapore, launched the first such deal in Singapore dollars and one of the first in Asia. It also comes from a new sector.

Nomura said that net revenues in its investment banking business for the last three months of 2020 were the highest in nine years. Yet while it was a good quarter overall for the firm's wholesale business, revenue fell year on year in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

China Industrial Securities Co priced its $300m bond at a tighter level than expected due to support from its hefty syndicate team, defying concerns even among some of the banks on the transaction whether the issuer would hit its funding target.

Lippo Malls Indonesia Retail Trust printed a $200m bond on Tuesday, with investors largely brushing off concerns about the hit to the borrower's business during the pandemic.

Chinese biopharmaceutical duo WuXi Biologics (Cayman) and InnoCare Pharma raised a combined HK$16.2bn ($2.1bn) on Tuesday from selling new stock.

Chinese financial leasing company Far East Horizon returned to the offshore renminbi (CNH) bond market on Tuesday for its largest deal in the currency.

Investors were eager to buy into investment grade rated property developer China Overseas Grand Oceans Group's (Cogo) latest dollar bond, pumping in $4.6bn of orders for the $512m trade.

The Hong Kong Mortgage Corp (HKMC) made a rare public appearance in the debt market this week with a dual-currency transaction worth $1.29bn-equivalent. Featuring a Hong Kong dollar portion and an offshore renminbi tranche, the deal helped the issuer get ‘competitive’ pricing levels, said bankers.

Indonesia’s Adaro Energy has sent out a request for proposals for a $400m loan to meet its refinancing needs.

JP Morgan’s head of southeast Asia equity capital markets has resigned, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Volumes in Asia’s loan market have slumped in recent years, with the pandemic only adding to the pressure. However, the biggest challenges for banks and borrowers are only just starting to emerge and they will test the industry's resilience.