China

The inaugural issuance of Baikal bonds — denominated in renminbi and issued in Russia — has come closer this week as the Russian Ministry of Finance toured Hong Kong and Mainland China on a non-deal roadshow, sources told GlobalRMB.

Alibaba Group Holding navigated every roadblock on its way to a $7bn issuance on Wednesday, sealing the second largest corporate bond from Asia after its own $8bn debut three years ago. The unexpected sell-off in tech stocks and US Treasuries posed only a small challenge to the tech giant’s debt market return, writes Addison Gong.

One of the last batches of the year’s Hong Kong IPOs kept the market busy this week, even as investors started to wind down for the holidays.

Chinese local government financing vehicle (LGFV) Gansu Provincial Highway Aviation Tourism Investment Group Co launched a euro bond on Thursday, returning to the debt market a year after its international debut.

Huarong Real Estate Co and Fosun International approached investors with different trades on Tuesday, with the former nabbing €500m from its inaugural offshore bond and the latter taking $300m from an opportunistic deal.

A local government financing vehicle from China’s Yiwu city leveraged on its strong credentials to raise $500m from a five times covered bond on Tuesday.

Anton Oilfield Services Group, rated Caa1/—/CCC, ventured into the volatile market on Tuesday to close its exchange and new money offering, taking home $300m in the process.

Demand from international investors to participate in Bond Connect is strong – with Ireland and Luxembourg-registered funds set to be the next group to join in once real-time delivery versus payment is introduced later this year, two bankers told the IFLR Asia Capital Markets Forum on Tuesday.

The Chinese regulators are planning to expand Bond Connect to cover exchange traded bonds, and are mulling changes to older access channels such as the qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) scheme, according to market participants.

CPI Ronghe Financial Leasing, which launched its first international syndicated loan a couple of months ago, has wrapped up the deal with a dozen banks chipping in.

Two companies from China’s Qingdao city are preparing to head offshore, just one week after a local government financing vehicle (LGFV) from the area bagged a $800m bond.

Tech giant Alibaba Group Holding is taking bids for a five-tranche transaction, putting its focus on the longer end of the curve. Hopes are high for yet another impressive deal from the Chinese firm, which last stunned the market in 2014 with the largest G3 bond on record from Asia ex-Japan.