China

A rarely seen product is set to return to the Asian securitization market with fixed income specialist SC Lowy and UOB Asset Management (UOBAM) gearing up for a $400m collateralized loan obligation (CLO). The transaction will be the first non-bank originated Asian CLO in years, but the structured finance community is sceptical about the market’s potential, writes Rev Hui.

Moody’s changed its outlook on the Chinese government’s credit rating to negative on Wednesday, putting the blame on weakening financials, falling currency reserves and uncertainty about the country’s ability to implement economic reforms. But the move drew limited reaction from market participants as China’s economic troubles have been well flagged.

Citi is set to end a decade long association with China Guangfa Bank (CGB) having announced this week that it will be selling its entire stake in the lender to China Life Insurance.

UBS has created an new Asia Debt Financing Group, combining its existing debt and leveraged financing teams, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Nomura’s head of investment banking for Asia ex-Japan is retiring from the bank, one of a number of senior staff who are set to leave the firm, according to internal memos seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Bond Connect is one of the key schemes of the Hong Kong Exchange Group (HKEX) as it embarks on an ambitious plans to act as a gateway between China and the rest of the world. The programme will act as a gateway for financial institutions who don’t want direct access to China’s bond market as well as a launch pad for indices and derivative products, said chief executive Charles Li.

The CME Group will launch trading of a new dollar index futures contract in April, in collaboration with Bloomberg, with the new index including the offshore RMB (CNH) as one of its currencies.

Moody’s changed the outlook on the Chinese government’s credit rating to negative on Wednesday as a result of weakening financials, falling currency reserves and uncertainty about the country’s ability to implement economic reforms.

Hong Kong-listed China Gas Holdings has broken new ground in China’s Panda bond market, becoming the first corporate issuer to take the deal proceeds offshore, several sources told GlobalCapital Asia's sister publication GlobalRMB this week.

Citi has decided to sell its stake in China Guangfa Bank (CGB) in a bid to refocus its resources on other parts of its China business.

With foreign ownership of Chinese bonds still at very low levels, the decision to open China’s interbank bond market (CIBM) could truly alter global investment strategies. But, at least for now, the devil will be in the details, with analysts saying that foreign ownership is unlikely to surge in the short term.

The renminbi held a steady second place as the currency of choice for payments between Malaysia and China and Hong Kong, as the usage of dollar continued to dominate, according to the latest RMB Tracker from Swift.