Asia Pacific

Semen Indonesia has launched senior syndication for a $1.28bn loan that will be used to buy the local operations of rival LafargeHolcim.

In this year’s last Clawback, columnist Philippe Espinasse has his say on corporate governance standards in Hong Kong-listed companies.

Mercuria Energy Group bagged a bigger-than-expected $1.35bn from its latest annual revolver in Asia, after 36 banks joined the deal.

Shanghai Junshi Biosciences has kicked off pre-deal investor education for its Hong Kong listing.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association on Tuesday said the derivatives industry seemed to have broadly agreed on a method of calculating replacement rates, known as fallback rates, for interbank offered rates (Ibors), in case those rates stop being calculated.

Some equity investors are hoping for a surprise gift before year-end if Donald Trump strikes a deal with Chinese president Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires to end trade hostility between the two nations, but they're clutching at straws.

National Australia Bank (NAB) was looking for execution certainty when heading to the dollar market to sell a pair of senior unsecured and covered bonds on Monday. But with credit conditions improving on Tuesday, Westpac shaved a few basis points off the cost of funding compared with its peer by opting for euros in covered and senior formats.

Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the Kazakh state-owned rail company, sold Sfr150m five year Swiss franc bonds on Tuesday, in choppy market conditions.

Thailand’s Strategic Hospitality Extendable Freehold and Leasehold Reit is set to launch a Bt3.96bn ($120m) sale of new units next month.

The Asian equity-linked market had a rare treat last week when Country Garden Holdings sold a convertible bond using a call spread feature. Its success has ignited hopes of more such deals, but ECM bankers and issuers should be wary of mixing dreams with reality.

India’s Power Finance Corp has invited banks to bid for a new five year financing, in its second visit to the syndicated loan market in 2018.

Mumbai-headquartered Metropolis Healthcare has been given the go ahead to list by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, paving the way for an equity sale by two shareholders.