Asia Pacific

Chinese financial technology company Ant Group is set to raise $34.3bn from the world’s largest ever IPO, after covering the deal within minutes of launch.

Deutsche Bank has grown its environmental, social and governance (ESG) team in Asia Pacific with a new hire.

In this round-up, China’s fiscal revenue growth turns positive in the third quarter, Sweden becomes the latest to ban Huawei Technologies from its 5G plan, and S&P Global Ratings’ onshore unit secures a licence to rate domestic bonds in the exchange market.

A host of Chinese issuers found one of the last windows to sell bonds on Thursday ahead of the US presidential elections at the beginning of November and a public holiday in Hong Kong early next week.

Gland Pharma, a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group, has won approval for its IPO from India’s securities regulator, according to a source close to the deal.

Metals and mining company Vedanta Resources has returned a $1.75bn loan and redeemed a $1.4bn bond after its plan to delist its Indian subsidiary failed to attract enough support.

Lufax Holdings, a personal finance services platform, has opened books for its offering of American depositary shares (ADS). It is aiming to raise up to $2.36bn.

HSBC has poached a senior banker from Citi to run banking in its Americas business.

Chinese property developer Country Garden has closed a $1.5bn-equivalent dual currency loan, attracting seven participants during syndication.

Dual recourse structures have become increasingly popular in India after last year’s debut from Kogta Finance. And with the sanctity of bankruptcy remoteness successfully tested in the courts, sentiment towards such structures has improved further. This could help pave the way for a national champion bank to test appetite for Indian covered bonds, which would offer the country's lenders a source of long-term diversified funding that they can't get from deposits.

The theory of nominative determinism states that people tend to take jobs that fit their names: John Baker becomes a baker, Ted Milk becomes a dairy farmer, Fakey McBlowhard becomes a politician. But there are also names that are valuable, not so much because they affect your career choices but because there’s a good chance you might get confused for someone else.

China’s Ant Group kicked off marketing for its Hong Kong and Shanghai dual listing on Thursday, the last stage before launching a possible $35bn IPO, set to be the world’s largest to date. The combined offering is already more than a third covered by onshore investors, with global buyers lining up for the rest. Addison Gong and Jonathan Breen report.