China

Chu Kong Petroleum & Natural Gas Steel Pipe Holdings has completed a series of fixed-income investor meetings in Singapore and Hong Kong which could result in the company’s first ever bond. However, a profit warning from the company has led bankers to question why a first-time issuer would court investors in such difficult market conditions.

Daimler’s plans to tap the Chinese Panda bond market caused a stir last week given the rarity of such issues. The German automaker would be only the third name ever to tap the market, after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and would be the first corporate to do so. But bankers warn that there is little to suggest a flurry of activity will come in its wake. The problem is finding issuers that suit the market — and investors who want to buy.

Suntec Reit MTN, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suntec Reit, priced a Singapore dollar bond on Monday. The borrower conducting a non-deal roadshow in August last year for a potential dollar deal but instead this time opted for the six year Singapore dollar transaction as it looks to refinance a S$1.1bn ($859m) loan facility.

Chu Kong Petroleum & Natural Gas Steel Pipe Holdings has completed a series of fixed income investor meetings in Singapore and Hong Kong which could result in the company’s first ever bond but a profit warning and difficult market conditions suggest issuance is unlikely.

After an explosive start to the year in the dim sum market, Powerlong Real Estate Holdings became the first casualty of oversupply when investors turned down its three year offering and it was forced to pull its proposed bond on Wednesday.

Gazprombank returned to the offshore renminbi market on January 23 raising double the amount it managed on its debut last year and in doing so became the first Russian issuer to tap the CNH market in 2014. The third largest bank in Russia also made use of a strong existing European investor base, attracting the biggest demand from that region for the CNH bond this year.

Gazprombank returned to the offshore renminbi market on January 23 raising double the amount it managed on its debut last year and in doing so became the first Russian issuer to tap the CNH market in 2014. The third largest bank in Russia also made use of a strong existing European investor base, attracting the biggest demand from that region for the CNH bond this year.

Germany is comfortably China’s largest trading partner in Europe, accounting for about a third of all EU-Chinese trade and for a large share of European FDI into China. That would seem to make Frankfurt a natural hub for renminbi (RMB) trading and settlement in Europe. Indeed, when Prime Minister Li Keqiang chose Germany as the destination for his first overseas trip as China’s Premier, in May 2013, he spoke of the economic “dream team” that the two countries could create if they intensified their co-operation. Can this also be applied to financial services, and if so, will it underpin the further expansion of Frankfurt as a financial centre? This was the focus of EuroWeek’s December roundtable in Frankfurt.

Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, talks to EuroWeek’s Toby Fildes about Germany and Frankfurt’s ambitions to become the Eurozone home of the renminbi, the impact that banking union will have on financial services and centres in Europe and whether or not enough has been done to prevent the economic crisis from returning.

China Ping An Insurance Overseas came for its second helping of dim sum this week and took Rmb1.6bn ($262m), despite being unrated. Meanwhile, new issuer Universal International Leasing also sold Rmb1bn ($136m), showing that investor appetite for dim sum is still strong, despite Powerlong Real Estate’s failure to launch its own deal (see page 1).

After an explosive start to the year in the dim sum market, Powerlong Real Estate Holdings became the first casualty of oversupply when investors turned down its three year offering and it was forced to pull its proposed bond on Wednesday, writes Virginia Furness.

Export Import Bank of Korea sold its first public renminbi transaction since 2012 late last week, launching a Rmb1bn ($164m) dual tranche bond split evenly between five and 10 year tranches. The issuer also took the unusual approach of listing the tranches on different stock exchanges — becoming the first to do so — selling the 10year bond in Taiwan and the five year in Singapore.