Asia Pacific

UBS has appointed Martin Yule as head of research for Asia Pacific, effective on March 1.

HSBC’s corporate finance staff have survived its restructuring largely unscathed, but the more ambitious among them will see the bank’s plans as a missed opportunity, writes David Rothnie. And with no answer yet on the identity of the next full-time CEO, the uncertainty is not over.

Frontier market bond issuance dropped in 2019, with sovereign issuance at its lowest figure since 2011, amid signs that private-sector creditors are pulling back from riskier countries.

A pair of Australian sub-sovereigns have made their debuts in the euro market in recent days. An attractive basis swap helped to encourage issuers to sell into unusually strong demand for long dated euro paper.

JP Morgan hires for corporate banking – Oaktree Capital registers in Beijing – Sebi tells NSE to sell stake in Cams – Chongqing RCB to launch WM arm

China Forestry Group, a state-owned company that cultivates and manages forest reserves in the country, has closed its $145m loan with four banks.

Avenue Supermarts’ founder Radhakishan Damani and members of his family offloaded a portion of their shares in the company this week, raising more than Rp34.3bn ($478.1m). The deal came just days after the company issued a chunk of primary stock.

China Huarong Asset Management Co courted investors with a four-tranche deal this week, mixing fixed and floating rate tranches.

The spread of the coronavirus led to a farcical robbery this week. Call it the lighter side of social breakdown.

Renewable energy company Vena Energy stumped Asian investors with its debut bond sale on Wednesday, relying instead on heavy support from Europe.

India’s equity capital markets have had a strong start to the year, pumping out a steady flow of large IPOs and secondary share offerings on the back of a big uptick in foreign investment. The country’s ECM pipeline is offering banks relief amid a slowdown in Hong Kong. Jonathan Breen reports.

Local government bond issuance in China had a record start in 2020, until the Covid-19 outbreak put a dent in the pace of deals. While new transactions announced by a number of provinces this week have signalled a revival, bond issuance alone may not be enough to fill a gap in governments’ funding needs. Addison Gong reports.