Asia Pacific

India’s Varroc Engineering has hired a trio of banks to lead an IPO timed for the first half of the year, according to a source close to the deal.

Westpac Banking Corp is poised to sell the first offshore renminbi bond of the year, opening books for a three year trade on Monday.

Country Garden Holdings Company (CoGard) and SEA Holdings are planning their comebacks to the offshore debt market, while Wharf Real Estate Investment Co is set to test its luck with accounts for the first time.

Chinese financial regulators publish fresh rules on the bond market to control leverage, China’s FX reserves grow again to $3.14tr in December, and Bank of China completes a RMB salary payment for Chinese diplomats abroad after the central bank’s call to push for cross-border RMB transactions.

Longfor Properties Co returned to the dollar market on Monday for its second investment grade deal in six months.

In the first instalment of our 2017 awards, we present the full write-ups of the winners for Best Investment Grade Syndicated Loan, Best High Yield Syndicated Loan, Best Leveraged/Acquisition Finance, Best Loan and Best Loans House.

JP Morgan launched on Thursday January 4 the first European equity-linked bond of the year: a $350m bond exchangeable into shares of Dufry, the Swiss duty free retailer. The deal is designed to hedge derivatives positions the bank already held on Dufry shares.

The People’s Bank of China announces new rules to promote cross-border RMB transactions, HSBC plans to launch a new service in Poland to capture business opportunities related to the Belt and Road Initiative, and Agricultural Bank of China obtained approvals for new branches in Southeast Asia.

China has relaxed access to the onshore renminbi (CNY) foreign exchange market for overseas banks based in Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Thailand, all countries that fall under the Belt and Road initiative, GlobalRMB has learned.

With growing demand for overseas investment, Chinese regulators could release new outbound investment quotas in 2018 by rebooting the qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) programme and launching a two-way ETF Connect with Hong Kong.

Chinese regulators have given their blessing to Global Logistics Properties (GLP) returning to the Panda market. The company is putting a Belt and Road spin to the issuance programme, even though proceeds are going towards a recent acquisition in Western Europe.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) is preparing to sell a Rmb1bn ($154m) three year bond before the end of January, GlobalRMB understands. The financial institution has become the second Japanese issuer in two weeks to secure a Panda bond programme.