China

A $12.7bn jumbo loan to back China National Chemical Corp’s (ChemChina) acquisition of Syngenta has gone into senior syndication in Asia, with the borrower seeking a large minimum commitment.

It goes without saying that things have not gone according to plan for Asia’s equity capital markets this past quarter. The numbers are sobering and the reality is that ECM has seen some fundamental shifts as deal origination and execution become more non-traditional. But that does not have to be a bad thing.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has slapped Moody’s Investors Service with a HK$11m ($1.4m) fine for what the regulator says are shortcomings in a 2011 report on Chinese issuers published by the agency.

China’s monetary policy choices and economic reforms are increasingly front and centre for global decision makers, according to panellists speaking at the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference (AIC), which opened in Hong Kong on April 5.

Petronas' subsidiary Malaysia International Shipping Corp is in the process of putting together a club of banks to supply a $1bn bridge loan.

Chinese metals exchange operator Yintech Investment Holdings is looking to list in the US, having filed a draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

Sunshine Life Insurance Corp has embarked on a roadshow for what would be its debut international offering, while Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC) is seeking approval to raise new debt.

In this round-up, MSCI announced that its review of A-shares is underway, eight new institutional investors received RQFII licenses in 2016, Hong Kong saw further falls in RMB deposits and cross-border RMB trade settlement, and Bank of China saw two RMB internationalisation indices drop recently. Plus, a recap of our top stories this week.

Guosen Securities (Overseas) Company Limited, which said on March 31 that no event of default had occurred on its CNH bonds, issued another notice to bondholders on the same day via trustee Bank of New York Mellon. The new notice, obtained by GlobalRMB, said that Guosen’s auditor RSM Hong Kong is yet to provide confirmation about certain write-offs in the guarantor’s financial accounts, which would determine whether an event of default occurred or not.

China is mulling the possibilities of issuing an SDR-denominated bond, the People’s Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Thursday.

Chongqing Red Dragonfly Oil has raised a $126m onshore loan with a group of seven lenders joining in syndication.

Standard & Poor’s has cut its credit ratings on Standard Chartered group entities by one notch, becoming the last of the three international ratings agencies to do so over the past few months.