China

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) said on Friday that it has appointed the local branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as the renminbi clearing bank for Argentina. The country becomes the second official RMB hub in Latin America, following the footsteps of Chile.

In this round-up, Argentina gets clearing bank, Lord Mayor of London pays a visit, CLSA gives its verdict on One Belt, One Road and HKMA chief calms fears over the renminbi.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) this week released new guidelines for offshore corporate bond issuance. While the move is supposed to further simplify the process and relax existing restrictions, the new rules have created a lot of uncertainty and led to fears that it will make offshore bond issuance more difficult, writes Carrie Hong.

Chinese auto company Geely International (Hong Kong) ventured into the bond market with an uncommon structure on September 16, raising $300m with a floating rate note backed by a loan from Bank of China.

Houston Huang Guobin, a former Goldman Sachs coverage banker, has decamped to JP Morgan to take up the position of head of global investment banking for China.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) took the bond market by storm this week, printing a $2bn Basel III tier two offering, the first Chinese bank capital trade since May. Despite coming during a week dominated by speculation about the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates, ICBC still managed to meet its price and size targets, offering just a small new issue premium.

A subdued north Asia equity capital market, which has barely seen any activity since August, suddenly burst into life on September 16. American car rental company Hertz reduced its stake in China Auto Rental (CAR) while Taiwan’s TWi Pharmaceuticals sold GDRs on the same day to raise a combined $187m.

HSBC and Standard Chartered are each working on their debut Panda bond issuance, aiming to launch the deals at end of September at the earliest, several sources have told GlobalRMB. If the deals come out as planned, these will also be first Panda offerings from financial institutions.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) this week released new guidelines for corporate offshore bond issuance. While the move is supposed to further simplify the process and relax the restrictions for issuers going offshore, the new rules have created a lot of uncertainty and led to fears that it will make bond issuance more difficult.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has released a set of new guidelines for offshore bond issuance in either renminbi or foreign currency. The new rules move away from the current case-by-case approval system to a registration-based regime for Chinese corporates and financial institutions.

Auto finance companies are set for a return to the Chinese interbank bond market for the first time in five years, with Ford launching an Rmb2bn ($314m) trade on September 17.

Hong Kong Airlines’ on-again, off-again IPO is now off again. The short-haul carrier has pulled the plug on its $600m float, with little visibility on when the listing could next hit the runway.