Asia Pacific

It gives me great pleasure to realise how much of an impact I’ve had on my former employees.

Chinese banks are beefing up their loans business in southeast Asia, with Bank of Communications (BoCom) becoming the latest firm to set its sights on further expansion. While Mainland lenders are more active in the region than before, there are challenges to their growth, writes Pan Yue.

Indonesian state-owned energy company Pertamina proved to the dollar bond market that quality credits can win over investors during turbulent times, as it navigated secondary market volatility this week to rake in $1.5bn from a chunky $10bn book. Morgan Davis reports.

Country Garden-linked Bright Scholar Education Holdings made its debut in the offshore bond market on Wednesday, raising $300m from a heavily-covered transaction.

China Great Wall Asset Management Co priced its first dollar bonds since May 2018, attracting investors amid subdued supply from the Chinese AMC sector.

International banks will finally be allowed to obtain a fully-fledged bond underwriting licence in China’s interbank bond market, giving a boost to their ambitions to expand in the mainland. But they will have to meet some very high standards before they can make progress. Rebecca Feng reports.

Wanda Sports Group has cut 38% off the size of its live US IPO, having reduced the stock on offer and trimmed price guidance as it confronts investors nervous over their unfamiliarity with the company.

Investors jumped at the chance to buy Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s Australian dollar covered bond on Wednesday.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tapped the sterling market through its London branch on Wednesday to become the first Chinese bank to sell a senior benchmark bond in the currency. Demand was driven by an anchor investor, with the lead managers increasing the size of deal to satisfy as many orders as possible.

Equity capital markets investors say they will continue to stand firm on valuations and will not be pressured by aggressive sellers into buying deals that they think are too expensive.

Frasers Property (Thailand) has raised Bt3.26bn ($105.8m) after selling a chunk of new stock, pricing the block at the top of guidance.

Hanwha Energy USA Holdings Corp’s green bond attracted more than $2bn of orders on Tuesday, allowing the borrower to close the $300m trade with no new issue premium.