Asia Pacific

Blank check company Bridgetown Holdings, which is focused on southeast Asia, has raised $550m from a listing on the Nasdaq.

Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China’s investment arm tapped the bond market on Thursday, joining a host of other issuers that also sought fresh funding.

Indonesia coal producer Indika Energy was back in the debt market on Thursday with a $450m bond.

Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) made a rare outing in the dollar market on Thursday, competing with hefty supply from Greater China to raise $300m.

Asia’s dollar bond market has been swamped with new deals this week. Thursday was no different, with corporate borrowers from Greater China alone raising just over $3bn between them.

Taiwan-based notebook computer maker Inventec has increased the size of its revolving loan to $500m after attracting 11 participants during syndication.

KWG Living Group Holdings, a property manager, and real estate developer Radiance Holdings launched bookbuilding for their Hong Kong IPOs on Friday.

Kazakh fintech and e-commerce firm Kaspi began trading on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday after completing a popular IPO. The deal was a remarkable achievement and there are hopes it means future growth-orientated IPOs from the emerging and frontier markets may see similar success, writes Sam Kerr.

Chinese discount retailer Miniso Group Holding raised $608m from a successful US listing on Thursday, after pricing the deal above the marketed range.

SMC Global Power Holdings Corp was one of the few Asian issuers outside of China to turn to the dollar market this week. The Philippine borrower attracted ample investor support, allowing it to raise more money than it had first planned.

Fitch Rating’s China arm, Fitch (China) Bohua Credit Ratings, assigned its first domestic rating five months after securing a licence in the world’s second largest bond market. But international agencies still face plenty of hurdles to growing their businesses onshore, writes Addison Gong.

China Evergrande Group this week tapped the equity capital markets for HK$4.3bn ($554.9m), making its first primary share sale in five years. But the fundraising did not go as planned, with the embattled property developer nearly halving its initial target after investors called for a smaller deal. Jonathan Breen reports.