Asia Pacific

Bondholders are still afraid to form alliances like those in the equity market to pressure issuers to improve their environmental, social and governance performance. They are paralysed by fear of market abuse and competition rules. But there is hope regulators will reassure them.

The S&P 500 last week broke through the 3,000 level and set a new record high to cap seven months of global equity indices gains. But active equity fund managers remain sceptical of the rally and are continuing to exercise caution particularly in IPO investing.

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s decision to pull the $9.8bn IPO of its Asian business is a classic example of a seller not listening to the views of investors when it comes to valuation.

S&P Global’s China unit has issued its first domestic rating to ICBC Financial Leasing (ICBCFL), a unit of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. But bankers say that the rating agency has chosen an easy target and will need to move to lower quality names if it hopes to go further in the Mainland.

It is sometimes said that Asia’s loan market lacks innovation. But this is just getting ridiculous.

A subsidiary of Indonesian textile company Duniatex missed an interest payment on a $260m syndicated loan last week, causing the bond price of its sister company to collapse and bankers to wonder about the wider health of the sector. Pan Yue reports.

While the latest move from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), restricting the use of the proceeds in offshore bonds by Chinese real estate companies failed to startle Asia’s bond market, a heavy supply of aggressively-priced deals is weighing on sentiment, writes Addison Gong.

Wanda Sports kicks off IPO bookbuild — CloudMinds starts gauging interest for $500m float — NetEase's Youdao eyes US listing — Alphamab Oncology gears up for HK deal

HSBC China appoints loans origination head – Commerzbank names joint country CEO for China – CréditAg hires for sustainability – Credit Suisse, ANZ adds to syndications team – JP Morgan creates a new economy job – BNP goes sustainable – JPM China JV gets IB head

Singapore-listed real estate company CapitaLand Commercial Trust has raised S$220m ($162m) from a private placement to fund an acquisition in Germany.

Hong Kong’s New World Development (NWD) sold an additional $400m of 6.25% senior fixed-for-life perpetual bonds on Wednesday, taking advantage of a “constructive” market for such structures.

China’s DouYu International Holdings ended a three month journey to a Nasdaq listing this week, closing the biggest Chinese deal on the exchange this year. The company was forced to price the shares at the bottom of guidance, but returned with a much bigger size than originally planned. Gina Lee and Jonathan Breen report.