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Recent dollar bonds in Asia offer timely insight into the ingredients needed to seal deals in the Covid-19 environment.

Pressure on Asia’s loan market has eased recently as funding costs come under control and the Covid-19 spread in China slows down. But bankers hoping for a quick rebound in deal flow should keep their expectations in check.

In this round-up, the People’s Bank of China cuts the one year and five year loan prime rates (LPRs), Moody’s lowers its outlook for Chinese property developers to negative and Wuhan’s new death toll from Covid-19 is 50% higher than originally reported.

In this round-up, China’s economy shrinks for the first time since records started, exports and imports fall in March but rebound from recent lows, and the State Council will further develop the country’s capital markets.

In this round-up, China’s ambassador to the US said the two countries have been working towards implementing the trade agreement reached in January, and the UK’s foreign secretary said hard questions need to be asked about the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tussle between bond syndicate desks and investors about whether opening books well wide of the final target spread is a worthwhile endeavour or a red flag for unprofessionalism has raged for years. This time, syndicate desks have called it right to start deals so cheap.

We're living in unprecedented times given Covid-19 related lockdowns, but there's no reason for us to lose all semblance of normality.

Chinese banks’ eagerness to lend has long allowed the country’s borrowers to get away with razor-thin pricing on their offshore loans. Not anymore.

Asia’s third online-only IPO was launched this week, confirming that virtual roadshows are a new normal for the region’s equity capital markets amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Companies elsewhere should take heed.

There has been much discussion since the financial world went into lockdown about how life in the capital markets will change once governments lift restrictions. Chief among those concerns has been whether the usual business of putting deals together needs to burn the Bacchanalian quantities of jet fuel and waste the many hours lurking around airports that capital markets air miles enthusiasts were doing before Covid-19 grounded them. If that is to change, borrowers and investors need to make it happen.

The re-emergence of economies from their Covid-19 cocoons will leave winners and losers in the medium term, with China likely to approach normality again well before the West. But acquisitive Chinese companies hoping to pick up bargains in Europe will face an insurmountable heap of regulation.

China’s government has won plaudits for its response to the Covid-19 coronavirus. That praise should extend to its capital markets.