Asia Pacific

Two Indonesian deals brought international investors some relief from the onslaught of Chinese bonds on Monday. Pertamina and Tower Bersama Infrastructure netted a combined $1.85bn from three tranches of notes.

The US and China’s signing of the phase one agreement on trade this week will finally put almost two years of battling and tit-for-tat tariff retaliation behind the countries. However, while the truce may pave the way for more market stability and a boost in investor sentiment, it spells trouble for the Chinese offshore loan market.

South Korean steel company Posco made a blockbuster return to the debt market on Monday, raising $940m from dollar investors and €500m from the European market. The peak order book of about $5.75bn for the dollar portions reflected investors’ eagerness to take on investment grade risk.

New World China Land, the mainland China property business arm of Hong Kong’s New World Development Co, has returned to the offshore loan market after five years for a HK$5bn ($643m) borrowing.

Chinese property developer Seazen Group raised HK$2.73bn ($351.3m) on Monday from a sale of new shares, increasing the offering size on the back of strong demand, according to a source familiar with the deal.

Seven borrowers from Greater China raised about $2bn from new dollar bonds on Monday, while Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific tapped the Singapore dollar market.

Gradually over the past decade, Asian investors have become more and more important to European corporate private debt markets, to the point where they are now often indispensable. Asian borrowers have been slower to appear, but are now arriving. However, while these arrivals have largely benefited these markets, they have introduced a few complications.

Hong Kong-listed Anta Sports Products hit the market with a €1bn convertible bond on Monday after the close of business, according to a term sheet seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Matthew Xu has become an executive director of debt capital markets in Crédit Agricole’s China debt origination and advisory team, effective Monday.

Ten more Asian issuers rushed to the dollar bond market on Monday, further adding to the record debt issuance seen in the region last week.

Chinese liquefied natural gas supplier ENN Ecological Holdings Co has made its debut in the offshore loan market through Standard Chartered.

China’s challenger to Starbucks, Luckin Coffee, has raised $979.6m after increasing the size of a combined sale of new shares and a convertible bond, the first tap of the ADS equity-linked market in 2020.