Asia Pacific

Structured issuance in Formosa format has tumbled amid a wider decline in structured MTN volume year to date, which Dealogic data shows has fallen from $9.98bn across 213 trades at this point in 2018 to $5.08bn across 119 deals this year.

Three Chinese property companies courted high yield dollar investors on Wednesday, raising a combined $827m.

Melco, the casino operator, played its US investor cards on Wednesday to build a $500m bond sale.

Santander’s S3 business is set to join up with Crédit Agricole’s CACEIS, as the two banks look to merge their custody and asset servicing operations, a growing area of revenue for banks.

Mainland property developer Times China Holdings has raised HK$1.57bn ($200.2m) after boosting the size of an overnight top-up placement.

Chinese company Hollysys Automation Technologies withdrew its planned follow-on share offering on Wednesday.

Former senior executives at the World Bank have warned incoming president David Malpass that he must use his first 100 days to make clear to staff he is prepared to distance himself from the agenda of Donald Trump.

HNA Group’s Hong Kong subsidiary, CWT International, appeared to default on a secured Hong Kong dollar loan on Wednesday. Although the company has had debt problems in the past year, many bankers were still surprised by the default and said more thorough background checks will be carried out on Chinese borrowers in future. Pan Yue reports.

SMC Global Power Holdings Corp (SMCGP) sold a rare perpetual bond on Tuesday, proving that investors still like the format and the rarity of a Philippines credit.

Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance is on track to price its largest ABS trade under the Silver Arrow China series. The originator, having previously turned to Moody’s and Fitch for international ratings, switched to S&P and gained an AAA rating for its deal.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China raked in the equivalent of more than $2.2bn on Tuesday across four tranches of notes in three different currencies.

A surge in shareholder activism is providing banks with a lucrative new source of revenue, but they have to tread carefully or risk losing treasured corporate relationships, writes David Rothnie.