Banks

Profit Reach, an investment vehicle owned by Chinese billionaire Shen Guojun, is seeking a $550m refinancing loan with a rare put option provided to lenders. The deal has raised debate over whether the structure can catch on in Asia. Pan Yue reports.

Bank of China has received the green light to raise as much as Rmb40bn ($5.88bn) from a perpetual additional tier one bond in its domestic market, opening a new funding channel for Chinese banks. But although a flagship bank is leading the way, smaller institutions may find the perpetual format more compelling. Rebecca Feng reports.

Club-style Chinese deals were back this week as Peking University Founder Group Co raised $150m from a three year bond and Yankuang Group grabbed $215m.

Goldman Sachs has appointed Jung Min as co-head of its Asia Pacific ex-Japan technology, media and telecom group.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has appointed Mark Warburton as its new head of Australia equity capital markets, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

The public sector dollar market on Wednesday showed that it had more than enough depth to cope with a pair of issuers bringing deals in the same maturity with just a basis point of difference in initial price thoughts, as both trades came in size and at tightened pricing. Another agency is set to dip into the demand on Thursday.

Four covered bond issuers returned to the market on Wednesday and, in contrast to the start of the year when concessions were 5bp-7bp, none paid more than 2bp.

Following the success of Engie’s green hybrid bond the previous week, the French energy company’s Portuguese peer, EDP, launched its own version on Wednesday. While EDP’s deal did not achieve quite the same demand or tight pricing, the result was still a good one.

Banca Monte Dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) achieved a strong result for its first Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite (OBG) since 2015, sending a strong signal to investors, and particularly those of its struggling subordinated bonds.

Mongolian Mortgage Corp (MIK) showed that investors have the appetite to take on frontier market risk, raising a larger-than-expected $250m from an issuance that was months in the making.

Swiss speciality chemicals company Sika attracted more than Sfr6bn of demand on Tuesday evening for a mandatory convertible bond issue to finance its Sfr2.5bn acquisition of Parex, the French building materials company, from CVC Capital Partners.

China Evergrande Group hit its size goal of $3bn with a tap of three of its existing bonds, a strategic decision by the property developer. But the issuance dented its secondary curve as noteholders fled to the juicier new transaction.