BNP Paribas

Chinese bond issuers were the first out of the gate on Thursday, vying for investors’ attention after public holidays in many parts of Asia shut markets on Wednesday.

Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance has completed the tightest auto asset-backed securitization by any foreign originator in China in almost two years. The deal, which closed on Monday, was twice oversubscribed despite two underwriters dropping out of the syndicate at the eleventh hour.

BNP Paribas has replaced a member of its London-based SSA syndicate team with an internal appointment, GlobalCapital understands.

Banks with major exposures to Turkey were getting hammered after a loss of financial market confidence pushed the country towards a crisis at the beginning of the week. But analysts suggest that any fears of contagion into the European banking sector are overdone.

BNP Paribas said on Thursday that it had hired Viktor Hjort from Brevan Howard as global head of credit strategy and desk analysts, following the promotion of Olivia Frieser to global head of research.

Chinese companies BOC Aviation and Digital China have launched offshore loans into general syndication, seeking $500m and $100m, respectively.

Iron ore firm Ferrexpo has more than doubled the size of its revolving pre export finance facility to $400m and has extended the maturity by an extra year, but lenders say Ukraine’s loan market remains only partially open.

BOC Aviation, the aircraft leasing group under Bank of China, has launched a $500m five year borrowing into general syndication, with a group of ten banks at the helm.

Geely and BNP Paribas’s auto finance joint venture hit the Chinese securitization market with a bang on Tuesday, as domestic investors oversubscribed its single tranche sale by three times. The deal came a week before Mercedes is scheduled to launch a similarly structured transaction, which will be its first in China this year.

Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) raised $600m from a quick transaction on Monday, following the approach of other recent Chinese issuers by relying on anchor orders to close the deal.

After a two year absence in the Panda bond market, Veolia Environnement made its return last week to raise Rmb1bn ($145.6m). Instead of placing another three year bond, the French corporate issuer cut the tenor to just one year — a move that paid off for the borrower, said bankers.

Nomura has hired Jin-goo Kim as head of debt capital markets for Korea.