Asia Pacific

Chinese technology company Tencent Holdings is set to sign a €1bn club loan to support its acquisition of a stake in Universal Music Group.

Yuexiu Transport Infrastructure, a Hong Kong-listed investor and operator of highways and bridges in China's Guangdong province, sealed its second Rmb1bn ($144m) Panda bond on Thursday.

The sustainability-linked loan market is a glorious mess.

The loan market’s trade bodies are preparing to give new guidance about how to ensure sustainability-linked loans — in which borrowers can get a margin reduction if they hit sustainability targets — are genuinely “ambitious”. Bankers want to protect the market from rising concerns that some deals’ terms are too easy on the borrowers.

Catastrophe bonds issued by the World Bank have been positive for both investors and the countries receiving protection from the securities, according to one market veteran. The organisation’s activity in insurance-linked securities has been highly innovative but has also received criticism from some quarters.

JP Morgan has issued a $575m synthetic bond exchangeable into the American depositary receipts of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company.

The first Kangaroo deals of 2020 from SSAs started trickling through this week, after ANZ blew the doors off the Australian dollar market with a A$3.5bn ($2.4bn) self-led domestic deal on Tuesday.

I love a good story about the days gone by. I remember when liquid lunches were not just accepted but encouraged. My best ideas often came after downing martinis over a long lunch. But a recent story from Australia makes my wild days of boozy work meals look quite tame.

Lao People's Democratic Republic has taken a step towards selling a public dollar bond in the international market, after gaining its first local and foreign currency issuer ratings from Moody’s on Wednesday.

Axis sells full Syndicate Bank loan — Onfem boosts size to HK$6bn — Indorent closes $175m borrowing with 13 banks — VPBank wraps up $200m facility — Vingroup attracts 14 lenders

Chinese real estate issuers dominated the dollar bond market this week, with 16 developers pricing deals by Wednesday. Ample liquidity and a risk-on sentiment allowed most issuers to go long and cheap, but the mid-week volatility in the global market proved costly to some companies, writes Addison Gong.

Weigao Holding Co has sold a $150m bond exchangeable into the H-shares of Shandong Weigao Group Medical Polymer Co, notching a number of firsts in the process.