Asia Pacific

Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group will likely tap both the bond and loan markets to take out a bridge facility raised last year for the acquisition of retail giant Tesco’s Asia business.

Indonesian chicken producer Widodo Makmur Unggas is aiming to raise up to Rph1.18tr ($84m) from the country’s largest IPO in over a year.

UBS has appointed Axel Granger as head of M&A and head of financial sponsors for southeast Asia, a newly created position at the bank.

Hong Kong-based energy firm Fortune Oil has returned to the loan market. It is seeking $400m-equivalent to refinance an old borrowing sealed in 2018.

In this round-up, consumer inflation in China turns positive in December, Beijing announces rules to protect Chinese companies from sanctions of foreign governments, and the banking and insurance regulator hands a Rmb200m ($30.1m) fine to financial institutions including China Development Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

In this round-up, the central bank sets working goals for 2021, the Chinese government extends its policy to support small and micro-sized enterprises, and the US bans eight Mainland-based applications including the popular Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Five Chinese corporate borrowers pushed into the debt market on Thursday, capping a frantic pace of deal flow this week that set a new record for Asia bond issuance.

Hong Kong-based property developer New World Development Co (NWD) opened a new area of issuance for Asian borrowers on Thursday when it sold the region's first dollar sustainability-linked bond.

Bank of China sold its debut transition bond on Thursday, giving the still nascent market a big boost by opting for a dual currency dollar and renminbi deal.

Chinese originator Home Credit Consumer Finance Co sold a Rmb1bn ($155m) consumer loan ABS this week, opting for a different type of underlying assets compared to its past deals.

China Huarong Financial Leasing Co wooed investors with a $300m short-dated bond on Thursday to meet some of its general funding requirements, returning to the debt market less than six months after its last outing.

Gracell Biotechnologies has raised $209m from its Nasdaq IPO after increasing the size of the float and pricing the deal above the initial marketed range.