China

Bank of China made headlines last week for selling the first offshore Covid-19 linked bond. But the trade's status as a social bond — the first to come offshore from China — got less attention. The transaction shows the potential for social bonds from the country, while raising questions about why it has taken so long to see such a deal.

BMW Finance, a wholly owned special purpose vehicle of BMW, brought a Rmb3.5bn ($502m) dual tranche private placement Panda bond on Tuesday. Both tranches received plenty of demand from domestic investors, the result of flush liquidity onshore.

China Water Affairs Group is back in the loan market with a $100m club deal.

SAIC-GMAC will sell a Rmb3bn ($430m) auto loan deal next week, marking its first securitization this year.

In this round-up, China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to record lows in February, the Hainan provincial government has stepped in to restructure HNA Group and the updated Securities Law took effect on Sunday.

China’s new securities law went into effect on Sunday, making major changes that will benefit issuers in the ‘enterprise bond’ market much more than their counterparts in the rival ‘company bond' market, according to bankers.

Asian debt borrowers were able to skirt market volatility for much of last week, selling more than $9bn of bonds. But the market slump hit Asia hard as the week drew to a close and the jitters continued on Monday morning.

In this round-up, the growth of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) infections outside China outpaced that reported by the country, Chinese regulators announced more loosening policies and the trade of wild animals for consumption is banned in the Mainland.

In this round-up, the sell-off in equities continues to worsen as Covid-19 spreads, Hong Kong’s financial secretary forecasted a budget deficit of HK$139.1bn for the 2020-21 fiscal year, and China’s January non-financial outbound investment dropped by 9.5% in US dollar terms.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co netted $400m from its bond sale on Thursday, as the market battled falling sentiment.

Three Chinese real estate developers braved a volatile market on Thursday, raising $800m as fears around the coronavirus continued to ravage secondary prices.

Hengan International, a Hong Kong-listed Chinese producer of sanitary napkins and baby diapers, sold the first coronavirus-linked Panda bond on Friday. The red-chip issuer will spend 13% of the proceeds for the cause.