Asia Pacific

Geely and Dongfeng-Nissan will return to the Chinese auto loans ABS market next week with a total of Rmb7.4bn ($1.1bn) of paper. But while China’s auto loans ABS market has been dominated by auto finance companies (AFCs), Ping An Bank will soon bring the first internationally rated auto loan ABS originated by a commercial bank.

Global investors lauded the inclusion of Chinese bonds in Bloomberg Barclays’ flagship index this week as the start of a new era, but onshore bankers said it was only a gesture. Perhaps they are both right. The move will force global investors into the unknown and could redraw the map for global bond investment.

Pakistan’s Hub Power Co (Hubco) has launched a rights issue to fund an increase of its stake in the local subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned power company.

Tony Lee has joined MUFG Bank (Hong Kong), to head the Japanese lender’s corporate banking business in east Asia.

Vinmec International General Hospital, a subsidiary of Vingroup, has launched a $300m deal into general syndication after receiving commitments from five banks during senior syndication.

Nasdaq-listed Chinese streaming platform Bilibili has opened books for a concurrent convertible bond and placement of American Depository Shares, eyeing combined proceeds of up to $614m.

Chinese real estate companies Kaisa Group Holdings, Jingrui Holdings and China SCE Group Holdings came to the market on Monday after announcing strong financial results for 2018 last week, raising $900m between them.

Singapore agricultural commodity company Olam International and its wholly owned subsidiary Olam Treasury have raised the firm's first loan where its funding costs are linked to the digitisation of the company.

The Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index started phasing in Chinese government bonds (CGBs) and policy bank bonds on Monday. While global investors anticipated a new era for the Chinese bond market, onshore bankers insisted change would not happen overnight.

Two Malaysian state-backed funds, Employees Provident Fund and Permodalan Nasional Berhad, have raised a £1.5bn ($1.96bn) three year bullet loan to support their acquisition of part of the Battersea Power Station development in London.

Westpac and Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) kicked off the new quarter on Monday with large euro benchmarks that were priced flat to their curves.

In this round-up, Chinese government and policy bank bonds are included in the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index, JP Morgan and Nomura win permission to set up securities JVs and China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rebounds from a three-month low.