Asia Pacific

In this round-up, Credit Suisse plans to increase its workforce in mainland China by 100% in five years, the central bank develops a new benchmark interest rate, and yet another US-listed Chinese firm comes under the scrutiny of the US securities regulator.

In this round-up, China plans to develop the domestic semiconductor industry amid tighter technology export controls imposed by the Trump administration, India blocks over 100 Mainland-based apps including Baidu and Alipay, and Beijing vows countermeasures if Chinese journalists fail to get their US visas renewed.

Indonesian oil and natural gas company Pertamina has shortlisted six banks for a bridge loan of as much as $3bn to support its acquisition of energy assets.

Carl Roberts, head of loan syndication for south and southeast Asia at ANZ, is retiring after nine years with the Australian bank.

Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group came to the dollar market with a $2bn trade on Tuesday as it jumped ahead of the September funding rush.

Covered bond issuers were urged to do their toughest covered bond trades in the wake of an outstanding result on Thursday for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, which attracted a deeper and broader range of higher quality demand for its first negative yielding structured covered bond than any of its previous deals.

HSBC might be in the middle of a big restructuring, but that isn’t stopping plans to develop mid-market M&A efforts in France, Germany and Asia as well as the UK, writes David Rothnie. The bank has also bolstered its teams covering specific sectors.

Fast food franchise operator Yum China Holdings is cooking a multi-billion-dollar secondary offering in Hong Kong. It is the latest deal in a growing trend that bankers expect will bring more US-listed Chinese companies to the exchange by the the end of 2020, writes Jonathan Breen.

Solar glass manufacturer Xinyi Solar Holdings raised HK$2.7bn ($343.5m) on Wednesday, after boosting the size of a primary share sale.

China is working on new rules to give foreign investors fuller access to the world’s second largest bond market. However, bankers are sceptical. Addison Gong reports.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation sent a positive signal to hesitant Asian covered bond issuers on Thursday when it was set to price its first negative yielding covered bond, attracting a deeper and broader scale of demand than on any of its previous deals.

Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co used a direct guarantee structure for its dollar bond return instead of a keepwell agreement, just days after keepwell deals sold by Peking University Founder Group were not recognised in a debt restructuring. The move paid off for the metro operator — bolstering the rating of its deal and helping it get away with tight pricing. Alice Huang reports.