Asia Pacific

Chinese stocks are in Donald Trump’s firing line again, after the US president announced he is “looking very strongly” at any companies not following local accounting guidelines.

Fitch Ratings has won a licence to rate domestic bonds in China, becoming only the second foreign firm to get access to the Rmb103tr ($14.6tr) market.

China’s Powerlong Real Estate Holdings has closed a $200m-equivalent loan with three banks.

Chinese convenience store operator Suning Xiaodian is raising mezzanine debt of up to $300m to refinance an acquisition loan sealed last year.

Terry Mo has joined CMB International as a senior product manager in the structured finance department.

Genius Auto Finance sealed a Rmb4bn ($563m) three tranche auto loan ABS on Thursday, piercing through a razor-thin 2% coupon level for the senior tranches.

Australia smashed its syndication record with a bumper A$19bn ($12.2bn) bond issue that attracted A$53.5bn of orders on Wednesday, while New Zealand set a record of its own as it upped its 2020-21 borrowing programme to NZ$60bn ($35.8bn).

Indonesian palm oil producer Perkebunan Nusantara III (PTPN) is seeking consent from banks to delay payments on a dollar loan, given expectations of a hit to its business because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But bankers told GlobalCapital Asia this week that the state-owned company has enough cash to make the payments, with the syndicate team set to reject its deferral request. Pan Yue reports.

China has taken a long-awaited step towards opening its real estate investment trust (Reit) market, publishing rules for a pilot programme. The regulators are understandably starting small, but the guidelines don’t do enough for companies that need to list Reits the most.

Lately I’ve been reading the poetry of W B Yeats — part of a desperate attempt to calm my nerves. “I have spread my dreams under your feet,” he wrote. “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

Zhongsheng Group Holdings tapped the equity-linked market for HK$4.56bn ($588.4m) this week to repurchase an outstanding convertible bond. The firm found strong demand from the usual sets of investors but also got new names looking for defensive opportunities. Jonathan Breen reports.

Dada Nexus, an operator of Chinese on-demand retail and delivery platforms, and Legend Biotech Corp both set the ball rolling for Nasdaq IPOs this week.