Asia Pacific

In this round-up, China is ramping up measures to stimulate the economy including by issuing special treasury bonds, the central bank resumed open market operations and lowered the seven-day reverse repo rate, and the foreign exchange regulator has released some key data points.

Mainland-based Kangji Medical Holdings is seeking approval to list in Hong Kong. It has filed an IPO application with the city’s bourse.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have received the green lights from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to increase ownership in their Mainland joint ventures to 51%.

Standard Chartered will commit at least $1bn of financing for companies that provide goods and services that can be used to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Property developer Soho China is in talks with banks for a bridge loan to support its potential take-private deal by private equity firm Blackstone, according to sources close to the situation.

In this round-up, Chinese industrial profits recorded the steepest drop in a decade, US president Donald Trump praised China’s understanding of Covid-19 and Hong Kong bourse’s Charles Li said closing the market is not the solution to stem sell-offs.

In this round-up, China will block foreigners from entering the country starting Saturday, residents of Hubei are allowed to leave the province after two months of being under lockdown and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission is setting up a holding company to manage state-owned asset management companies.

Charoen Pokphand Group has invited banks to join a $7.5bn dual-currency loan in senior syndication. The deal will support the Thai conglomerate’s acquisition of Tesco’s Asia business.

Standard Chartered is forming a new financing and securities services unit that will combine securities services, which currently operates within transaction banking, with portfolio risk management in the financial markets business.

Chinese local government financing vehicle Chenzhou Industry Investment Group sold a euro-denominated bond on Thursday, rounding out a week of club-like deals in Asia.

Singapore’s flag carrier is planning to raise S$8.8bn ($6.16bn) from a concurrent rights issue and sale of convertible bonds to help stem crippling losses driven by the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Dear reader, These are extraordinary times for global capital markets as the world reels from the spread of Covid-19.