China

China Reinsurance Corp (Chine Re) has kicked off a soft pre-marketing for its $2bn IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, as investors remain in a risk-off mood amid global volatility.

Hong Kong-listed HNA International Investment Holdings has announced plans for a HK$2.97bn ($383m) rights issue that will hit the market in October.

Although Chinese equities are selling-off again today short-end CNY swaps have been better bid on underlying concerns about a gradual yuan depreciation trend. Elsewhere traders expect to see the curve steepen as corrective strength in equities supports paying in mid-sector swaps, writes Deirdre Yeung of Total Derivatives.

In the wake of a selloff despite People’s Bank of China easing, the China Financial Futures Exchange implemented a series of new rules designed to stop the pain.

The governments of Indonesia and Russia both signalled earlier this week that they are considering issuing renminbi denominated bonds. If the plans go ahead, these will be the third and fourth RMB deals from a foreign sovereign after the UK and Mongolia governments. However, FX volatility means now is not the best time to pull off a RMB deal.

In this round-up, Stock Connect trading surges this week, HKEx reports record levels of RMB futures trading, AIIB chooses a Chinese national as its president.

Yo-yoing global equity markets will shock M&A in Europe but will not stem deal flow altogether, as savvy companies continue to make strategic plays, write Dan Alderson and Elly Whittaker.

Equity capital market bankers, many of them having just completed the traditional late summer migration from deck chair to desktop, put on brave faces this week, as they took in the sudden collapse, then partial recovery, of global stocks.

Was it all a dream? At the start of the week the markets were in the throes of a full-blown panic, with talk of “Black Monday” and plentiful comparisons with the Lehman collapse. Yet barely three days later, the iTraxx Europe was back trading at 70.5bp, exactly the same level it was quoted at a week ago.

What a lot of fuss over nothing. At least that’s the view from bankers in Asia when asked about the recent turbulence in the region’s stock markets.

Global equity and debt markets rallied on Tuesday, while volatility subsided, after the People’s Bank of China cut its one year lending rate. But for hard hit emerging markets, more pain could be on the way.

Everbright Securities Co navigated cautious markets on its first outing to dollar bonds, thanks to the presence of anchors orders and a standby letter of credit (SBLC) from China Merchants Bank’s Shanghai branch. As the first triple-B rated SBLC backed trade, it has set a benchmark for future issues.