Asia Pacific

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is planning to introduce new rules that will require syndicate teams on bond and equity deals to be fixed earlier and brokers to disclose their fee structures, moves that are aimed at improving transparency in the city's capital markets and hold banks more accountable for their transactions.

Banks operating in Hong Kong are actively pushing for the adoption of alternative risk-free rates as the deadline for phasing out Libor, the old lending benchmark, approaches.

GlobalCapital and HSBC hosted a virtual roundtable in mid-January to discuss the blowout start to high yield bond issuance in 2021. Leading market experts highlighted how Asia’s debt markets have shifted — and how borrowers are positioning themselves for the rest of the year.

HH&L Acquisition Corp has bagged $360m after increasing the size of its New York Stock Exchange IPO, in yet another sign that Asia-focused blank cheque companies are surging in popularity.

Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank is in discussions with lenders for a comeback to the loan market.

Chinese solar power company GCL New Energy Holdings has met the threshold needed to restructure its debt, following its default on a dollar bond at the end of January.

Brookfield Asset Management has pulled off India’s third ever real estate investment trust IPO, raising Rp38bn ($521.7m) as strong demand covered the deal multiple times over.

JP Morgan has named Simone Haslinger and Jonas Troeber as the co-heads of its equity capital markets business in Australia and New Zealand.

In this round-up, China’s securities regulator approves the consolidation of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s main board and the SME board, listed companies are required to update investors with information related to their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) efforts, and Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau further lay the foundation for a cross-border wealth management connect pilot scheme.

In this round-up, Ant Group and the Chinese regulators have reportedly agreed on a restructuring plan that will see the online payments firm transform into a financial holding company, and MSCI rolls out two new indices tracking new economy companies in China.

Medical device manufacturer New Horizon Health has pulled in early demand to cover its Hong Kong IPO multiple times over, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Standard Chartered has made two appointments to its corporate, commercial and institutional banking (CCIB) business in Singapore.