Asia Pacific

South Korean bond issuers have defied a volatile market over the past week or so, selling $2.5bn of offshore bonds and giving a rare bit of good news for debt bankers — who admit they are nervous about the future. Addison Gong reports.

Foreign appetite for China’s ABS market is growing fast, although the trade war and market infrastructure still pose challenges, according to panellists at IMN’s first Asian Structured Credit Summit on October 24.

Two Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) and State Power Investment Corp (SPIC), picked a short-lived issuance window to raise a combined $1.07bn on Wednesday.

China Gas Holdings doubled the size of its Panda bond to Rmb2bn ($288m) on Wednesday, thanks to strong demand from investors, according to bankers.

The response to a refinancing loan for KKR-owned MMI International, a hard disk drive developer, has disappointed amid concerns around a Chinese consortium’s planned acquisition of the Singapore-based firm. What lies ahead for the borrower? Pan Yue finds out.

Global equity markets were slammed this week, with a rout on Wednesday wiping out all the gains this year in the US. Amid the turmoil, a handful of technology firms were awaiting approvals to list in Hong Kong — some are expected to take a cautious approach but most are gearing up for a last-minute dash to find a closing IPO window. Jonathan Breen reports.

Kelvin Lim has returned to DBS as an executive director in the syndicated finance team after 11 years with Citi.

A long-touted equity link between London and Shanghai is set for take-off by the end of the year, but the most unsurprising news to emerge is HSBC’s plan to use it for a Mainland listing. China now has an excellent chance to get its act together on Chinese Depositary Receipts.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation took advantage of the lack of competing supply and good demand in dollars to suck $3bn out from the primary market on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Province of Alberta has mandated banks for its third benchmark of the year.

Korea Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) entered the euro market for the first time on Wednesday, where it was met with a warm response for what was also the first ever social covered bond from an Asian borrower.

Global equity market volatility has cast a long shadow over the end of 2018, making equity capital markets issuance more difficult.

Malaysia’s Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) raised $750m from a Wakala sukuk sale on Tuesday, navigating market worries by using a targeted approach for its deal.