Free content

In this round-up, the sell-off in equities continues to worsen as Covid-19 spreads, Hong Kong’s financial secretary forecasted a budget deficit of HK$139.1bn for the 2020-21 fiscal year, and China’s January non-financial outbound investment dropped by 9.5% in US dollar terms.

The shock of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak has forced some rapid thinking among capital markets participants. Almost the first impact has been on travel.

Market participants should be braced for political volatility as the world comes close to experiencing a pandemic.

“What's in a name?” wrote Shakespeare. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” A banker tried applying a similar philosophy last week. It wasn’t quite so poetic.

BMW sold an ultra-cheap auto loan securitization in China last week, giving a clear demonstration of investor appetite for highly-rated credits despite the coronavirus epidemic. But other auto financing companies (AFCs) should be realistic about their chances of repeating this success, as liquidity is drying up quickly.

The emerging markets bond business, like much of the rest of the primary markets, hit a stumbling block this week due to the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. But even if no deals print, delaying the marketing of deals does not make sense. Roadshows should be rolling on — as Belarus is doing — even if deal printing pauses.

In this round-up, the number of global cases of the novel coronavirus has spiked, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has concluded a two-year takeover of troubled Anbang Insurance, and the Star board will speed up the review process for IPOs from companies focusing on controlling the epidemic.

Asia’s bond market has had an undeniably stellar start to 2020. Despite the spread of the novel coronavirus, now named Covid-19, investors are continuing to buy bonds at remarkably tight prices as issuance accelerates. But the non-stop enthusiasm raises a serious question — are market participants too positive?

In this round-up, the central bank announced an expected cut to the loan prime rate (LPR), the publishing of monthly credit data for January came later but better than expected and offshore investors have increased their exposure to domestic Chinese bonds since Lunar New Year.

In this round-up, China is set for an unprecedented postponement of its March “Two Session” meetings this year, premier Li Keqiang cautioned against the potential economic fallout from the novel coronavirus outbreak, and the US designated five Chinese media outlets as foreign missions.

The spread of the coronavirus led to a farcical robbery this week. Call it the lighter side of social breakdown.

The poll to determine GlobalCapital's Bond Awards 2020 is open. Until June 30, market participants are invited to choose the firms and individuals who have performed most impressively in the past year.