Asia Pacific

HSBC’s new strategic plan involves numerous changes to its investment banking division, including shifting resources to Asia and the Middle East, reducing the scale of many operations in the European markets business, and combining product functions with commercial banking.

The People’s Bank of China trimmed the one year medium-term lending facility (MLF) rate by 10bp from 3.25% to 3.15% on Monday morning. The move will likely lead to lower loan prime rates when they are published later this week, said analysts.

In this round-up, China could face a downgrade to its sovereign rating, Hong Kong’s finance secretary expects a “tsunami-like” impact on the economy from the Covid-19 outbreak, and the Chinese securities regulator relaxed rules on stock issuance.

SBI Cards and Payment Services is preparing to launch its IPO of up to Rp95bn ($1.3bn) in the first week of March after getting the go ahead from the market regulator, according to a source close to the deal.

Property company Eisa Holding has returned to the loan market for a refinancing deal through bookrunner First Commercial Bank.

Avenue Supermarts' founder Radhakishan Damani and his family members are looking to raise Rp30.3bn ($424.7m) from a secondary share sale, following an issue of new stock by the company last week.

A number of Chinese borrowers are navigating a slowdown in offshore bond issuance approvals from the regulator by selling sub-one year deals to capture the momentum in the dollar debt market.

One of the most prominent debt bankers at HSBC has left the firm, as the reorganisation of senior management under interim CEO Noel Quinn continues.

In this round-up, the number of novel coronavirus infections increased by 14,840 in a single day after the Hubei province changed its diagnosis methodology, China has put the former mayor of Shanghai in charge of Hubei amid the prolonged outbreak, and regulators have given the green light to MasterCard’s long-awaited entry to the Mainland market.

Fosun International has returned to the offshore loan market for a $650m refinancing that is being run by a large banking group at the top.

Citic Capital Acquisition Corp has raised $240m from its listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The special purpose acquisition company (Spac) is targeting green and sustainable businesses.

Haitong International Securities Group has closed its club loan at a bigger size of HK$12bn ($1.5bn) after finding support from a group of 19 lenders.