Asia Pacific

StanChart bolsters sustainable finance team — CreditAg names Apac sustainability head — BOC HK appoints CEO — HKEX picks interim chief — Hang Seng has new chairman

KEB Hana Bank (KHB) of South Korea has set up a covered bond programme and, given the strength of market conditions, there are high hopes that a deal will be mandated soon.

State Bank of India successfully raised $600m with a bond issue underwritten by leading investment banks on Wednesday, just weeks after big investors divested from its green bonds because of its apparent intention to finance the controversial Carmichael coal mine being developed in Australia.

BMW Automotive Finance (China) Co and SAIC-GMAC Automotive Finance Co are edging closer to sealing their first China auto loan asset-backed securitization deals of the year.

Issuers from Greater China flooded the market with dollar deals on Tuesday, capitalising on strong appetite from investors ready to put money to work in the new year.

The Republic of Indonesia kicked off its 2021 bond issuance this week with a $3bn deal in dollars, split across 10 year, 30 year and 50 year notes, as well as a €1bn tranche.

The nascent transition bond market is set to get a boost after Bank of China announced plans for a new deal in both dollars and offshore renminbi.

A group of shareholders in Doosan Fuel Cell, a subsidiary of Korean conglomerate Doosan Group, raised W274.35bn ($253m) from a clean-up trade in the company’s stock on Tuesday night.

Chinese toll road operator Zhejiang Expressway kick-started Asia's equity-linked market this week, dipping into euros for the year’s first convertible bond. It plans to use all the proceeds to repay debt.

Asian loans bankers are expressing guarded optimism about their prospects this year. Most of their hopes are so far concentrated on India, where a mix of public and private sector deals — as well as the occasional sponsor financing — should bring some welcome supply.

Dollar bond issuance from Chinese property companies went up a notch on Tuesday with seven firms printing deals. On Monday, the first working day of the New Year in the region, four Mainland developers had wooed investors.

Singapore-based Ivanhoe Capital, led by mining billionaire Robert Friedland, is floating a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) on the New York Stock Exchange.