China

China’s hands-on approach into investigating Luckin Coffee signals that the regulators are serious about cracking down on financial crimes by corporations. But the full extent of their commitment will only be revealed by how they tackle similar problems in the future.

A HK$18bn ($2.3bn) term loan sealed by China Overseas Land and Investment in 2017 is doing the rounds in the secondary market, offering asset-starved banks an opportunity to take exposure to the Hong Kong-listed company.

A recent flurry of bonds from financial institutions did not dent appetite among investors for China International Capital Corp’s (CICC) $500m deal on Monday.

Powerlong Real Estate Holdings received huge support from investors for its $200m bond on Monday. The deal’s modest size and expectations of limited imminent supply from Chinese property credits helped the firm get away with a negative new issue premium of about 10bp.

Chinese property developer KWG Group Holdings returned to the bond market on Monday, taking $200m at a level that was inside of fair value estimates from analysts.

China’s Tahoe Group has failed to repay a second domestic bond. The company has announced a potential share sale to China Vanke Co, but the deal will not be a bail-out ─ Vanke has made clear it will not take on the company’s debt.

The Chinese Ministry of Finance and two other national regulators have concluded their investigations into fraud at Luckin Coffee. They will now impose administrative penalties.

In this round-up, Chinese financial institutions are given another year to comply with new asset management rules due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Luckin Coffee will be punished by the Ministry of Finance for inflating its sales figures, and Ant Group faces a potential antitrust probe that could derail its upcoming jumbo IPO.

Chinese state-owned commodities trader Tewoo Group Co, which has been under financial pressure for more than a year, is facing a possible restructuring.

Social and sustainability bonds have blossomed in Asia amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with debt bankers expecting more supply from the asset class for the rest of the year.

In this round-up, China emphasises proactive fiscal policies and flexible monetary policies, Hong Kong disqualifies a dozen pro-democracy candidates from the upcoming legislative council election and the Ministry of Finance tells local governments to use up their special-purpose bond quotas by October.

In this round-up, China’s July Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) numbers indicate recovery, Chinese video-sharing company TikTok is under a US national security review and Hong Kong-listed CanSino Biologics is set for a secondary listing on Shanghai’s Star board.