Asia Pacific

A handful of rare visitors came to the marker this week to place debt in dollars and yen, and bankers scrambled for a QNB mandate.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has published a set of long-overdue guidelines to select the country’s domestic systemically important banks (D-Sibs). Banks selected will probably face more stringent capital requirements as Chinese regulators finally launch tougher supervision for the country’s biggest banks.

Thailand’s state-owned PTT Exploration and Production Public Co ended a two-year hiatus from the offshore bond market this week with a $650m deal, taking advantage of the low rate environment to extend its maturity profile to 40 years.

Macau casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment, Philippine power company AC Energy and a local government financing vehicle from Jiangxi were among the crop of issuers to hit the bond market on Tuesday.

Pharmaceutical research and development platform Pharmaron Beijing Co has bagged HK$4.6bn ($588m) after sealing its Hong Kong public offering at the top of the price guidance.

China deepened its dollar debt curve on Tuesday with a $6bn jumbo bond. With its biggest dollar deal yet, the sovereign has set a new benchmark for issuers from the country.

Hong Kong hosted Alibaba Group Holding’s jumbo IPO in tough political times this month, yet the deal received overwhelming support in primary and the shares soaring in the aftermarket. While this success gave the city’s stock market a much-needed boost, other issuers would be mistaken in thinking that such liquidity is also available to them.

HSBC’s anticipated cuts to its global banking and markets (GBM) division may make sense. But they will not be easy to pull off smoothly.

Chinese power company SDIC Power Holdings is moving forward with its plan to list global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange to fund global expansion and its clean energy drive.

The World Bank has issued the first catastrophe bond to be sponsored by an Asian government, and the first to be listed on the Singapore Exchange. The Philippines will receive protection against damage caused by earthquakes and cyclones, writes Jasper Cox.

Investors showered a debut dollar deal from Uzpromstroybank with orders on Monday, with the order book for the $300m bond peaking at $1.2bn. But despite the success for the privatisation candidate, government officials are hoping that future Uzbek bond issuance will favour local currencies.

MSCI will complete its third and largest step of including China A-shares in its MSCI Emerging Markets Indexes and the MSCI China Index after the market closes on Tuesday. In preparation, foreign investors bought Rmb21.4bn ($3bn) of A-shares by 3pm through the two Stock Connect schemes — surpassing the record high of Rmb17.4bn achieved last year.