Asia Pacific

US president Donald Trump took things up a notch with more tariffs on Chinese imports imposed on Monday, forcing China to retaliate. Meanwhile, his chief economic advisor said trade talks were still possible and BlackRock’s CEO said the US economy may actually benefit from trade war in the short term.

In this round-up, Chinese premier Li Keqiang defends the pace of reform and opening up at the Summer Davos conference, the People’s Bank of China prepares to issue its first RMB bills in Hong Kong, and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) paints a rosy picture of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Boutique investment bank China Renaissance has wrapped up its HK$2.7bn ($345.5m) IPO at the bottom of guidance, with the deal multiple times subscribed.

India’s Azure Power Global is in the market for a $185m capital increase that will be priced before its New York Stock Exchange-listed shares resume trading on Friday.

Two Samsung-linked units raised W927bn ($829m) from a sell-down in Samsung C&T Corp on Thursday, capping a flurry of overnight block trades from South Korea this week.

Japanese issuers are rarely seen in the European corporate bond markets, but electric motor manufacturer Nidec made it two Japanese corporate bond sales in two days, following Japan Tobacco’s multi-tranche deal on Wednesday.

Rating: A1/A+

Japan Tobacco took the rare step of issuing corporate bonds in three different currencies on the same day when it sold its debut euro and sterling bond deals alongside a pair of dollar tranches this week. The unusual move proved to be a successful one however, with each tranche at least three times subscribed.

BOC Aviation made its fourth dollar market outing of the year on Wednesday, locking up $500m from a tightly priced floating rate transaction.

China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) jumped into the busy market on Wednesday, grabbing more than $835m from a dollar/euro dual-tranche transaction.

A couple of times every year, Hong Kong faces the brunt of rather strong typhoons. But last Sunday was special, even for someone like me who has lived in the city for more than 20 years. We welcomed super typhoon Mangkhut.

Goldman rejigs FIG team — BNY Mellon names China head — Sebi quickens IPO listings