Deutsche Bank

Asian bond volumes soared this year, breaking records with $350bn of issuance. Can 2018 possibly be any better? Addison Gong attempts to find out.

LexinFintech, a Chinese online consumer lender, has shrunk the size of a mooted Nasdaq IPO to $132m from its original target of around $500m, after regulatory changes in China put the sector in a negative light.

Iceland was awash with orders on Wednesday for its first deal since 2014, which came alongside a tender offer for the sovereign’s July 2020 bonds.

Unibail-Rodamco has taken out a €6.1bn bridge facility from its advisers Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, to finance its acquisition of Westfield Corp, the Australian shopping centre operator, for an enterprise value of $24.7bn.

Emerging market bankers said a pipeline of local currency Eurobonds is building for 2018 — including another in tenge — with Development Bank of Kazakhstan’s (DBK) recent tenge trade setting a good tone in the market last week.

Underwriters of Banca Carige’s €500m rights issue were jubilant on Thursday, when the results of the deal showed it had attracted about €200m of demand in the open market — almost exactly the amount needed for the banks to avoid having to buy shares, and underlining that the Italian lender has been rescued in an orderly way by private sector investors, a first in recent Italian history, writes Jon Hay.

South African property investment company Growthpoint postponed a euro denominated five year note on Wednesday suggesting that even high quality credits from the country will struggle to do deals as investors turn increasingly negative on it.

SSA bankers looking to get their Christmas shopping in early were in a state of shock on Tuesday, as the World Bank brought a dollar deal to follow the Province of New Brunswick’s return to the currency after a six year hiatus. But that could be it for 2017 as issuance is unlikely next week, which is bisected by a Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

The likely return of a rare sovereign issuer next week will break the silence in an otherwise quiet market for SSAs in euros, after there were just a smattering of German Lander trades this week. Meanwhile, investors believe that the rising interest rate cycle in the US could have a knock-on benefit for euro borrowers.

The Republic of Indonesia added yet another feather to its cap this week, selling its first SEC-registered bond on Monday. The sovereign has long been considered one of the most sophisticated debt issuers in Asia, and its new $4bn transaction shows how far it has come, writes Morgan Davis.

Deutsche Bank shook up the senior ranks of its equity capital markets desk in Asia this week, removing the co-head structure and merging ECM with equity derivatives. The move comes amid a global reorganisation being rolled out from the bank’s headquarters that combines the equity and debt financing units with markets. John Loh reports.

The Republic of Iceland looks set to bring its first syndication in over three years before the year end, after mandating banks on Wednesday to run a euro trade.