China

Gansu Provincial Highway Aviation Tourism Investment Group, a Chinese local government financing vehicle (LGFV), secured a $350m bond on Thursday, proving that not all LGFVs are locked out of the dollar market.

Beijing Capital Grand closed a successful $400m floating rate bond on Thursday, after waiting weeks for a market window. But the transaction fell flat in the secondary market after a bookrunner’s withdrawal from the trade spooked investors.

The renminbi is the fifth most used payments currency in the world despite a fall in payments value in June, credit rating agencies in China are set to undergo a review by commercial banks, and the asset management arm of UBS starts a fund to tap both onshore and offshore Chinese stocks.

Xi calls on other countries to fight protectionism, the Chinese government modifies fiscal policy to support the central bank’s easing of monetary policy, and the securities watchdog hints at the return of stock index futures.

Web browser Opera has bagged $115m from its Nasdaq IPO after a flood of demand made top-end pricing a certainty, according to a source close to the deal.

A new dawn has broken for RMB business in Japan, as the country prepares to launch its first RMB clearing bank and a local currency swap line with China. For now bankers are focusing on new renminbi investment quotas, which could mobilise the vast pool of Japanese household assets to tap onshore Chinese securities.

The IMF appears to have taken a cue from the Trump administration in its China country report published on July 25. The report made little effort to smooth over the urgent need for China to open up its economy and move forward with a restructuring of its regulatory setup.

China Aircraft Leasing is back with a $790m borrowing, pushing for a longer tenor to support its aircraft purchasing.

Fortune Oil PRC Holdings has returned to the offshore loan market for a $400m borrowing, refinancing a smaller deal closed in 2016.

Chinese high yield property bonds have been battered in the primary and secondary markets for much of 2018. Many issuers have been forced to steer clear of the market, fearing expensive pricing at best and failed deals at worst. But regulatory changes in China’s domestic market are starting to have an impact offshore, giving real estate companies the vote of confidence they have been waiting for. Morgan Davis reports.

Pinduoduo, one of China’s hottest technology start-ups, sealed its $1.6bn IPO at the top end as expected, but not all American Depository Share (ADS) listings were so lucky this week as investors remained on edge.

Ascletis Pharma priced its Hong Kong IPO in the middle of expectations on Wednesday, raising HK$3.1bn ($400m) from the city’s inaugural biotechnology offering.