Bank of America

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs are taking a knife to their Asian investment banking operations amid slower capital markets activity and as competition from Chinese lenders intensifies. This is just the latest in a series of culls in Asia as global banks struggle to find a suitable model. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

CK Hutchison raised $1.25bn and another €1bn ($1.12bn) on Wednesday, whetting investors’ appetite with a good marketing strategy and wise timing, according to bankers.

A range of credits from India, Malaysia and Greater China stormed the Asian debt market on Thursday, vying for investor attention.

The European Investment Bank has pushed the green bond curve out to the unprecedented length of 21 years with a new issue on Wednesday.

Steinhoff, the South African retail group, has completed a €2.45bn capital increase supported by one of South Africa’s richest men, Christoffel Wiese, and the Public Investment corp, of which €556m was raised through an accelerated bookbuild which ended up being nearly four times oversubscribed.

The ebullient tone that characterised the first three weeks of September has faded as investors begin to fret over the US presidential election on November 8, but there is still life in the SSA market.

International investment banks are taking a knife to their Asian operations amid slower capital markets activity, even as competition from Chinese lenders intensifies.

Fantasia Holdings Group returned to the bond market on Tuesday, taking advantage of the low yield environment to lock in cheaper funds while improving its debt maturity profile.

CK Hutchison Holdings is seeking fresh funds to refinance debt, and is eyeing a dual-tranche dollar bond with five and 10 year tenors.

Municipality Finance has made its long awaited entrance into the green bond market with a dollar five year on the same day that a new green exchange launched.

Shui On Development made its return to the international bond market on Monday after almost two years, bagging $250m from a new three year unrated offering.

China Construction Bank Hong Kong, Fantasia Holdings Group and Jinan West City Investment and Development Group were out in full force in the dollar bond market on Tuesday.