Greater China

Bankers marketing the latest crop of IPOs from China’s technology sector got their game face on this week amid escalating fears of a trade war with the US.

Ascletis Pharma is in the market with the first biotechnology IPO in Hong Kong following the bourse’s historic change in listing rules.

Four issuers, sovereign and sub-sovereign, are drawing closer to their debuts in China’s Panda bond market, as they seek to take advantage of falling yields in the Mainland, sources told GlobalRMB.

JP Morgan pocketed $350m on Tuesday from a cash-settled exchangeable bond that was the first of its kind in Asia, drawing huge support from long-only investors. The deal is among a handful globally that not only lets bank issuers raise funds, but also helps with hedging out their corporate derivative exposure. John Loh reports.

The onshore arm of DBS bagged Rmb3bn ($448.3m) from the Chinese bond market on Tuesday, marking its first trade since 2015 that carries a tenor of more than one year. The transaction was also the second bond from a Singaporean lender in the mainland this year.

Chinese firm Ascletis Pharma has launched bookbuilding for a HK$3.58bn ($456.9m) IPO, the first company to take advantage of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s new biotechnology-friendly listing regime.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange and China’s two largest bourses have reached a consensus on when dual-class share companies can be included on the Stock Connect, following a surprise decision by the latter to exclude weighted voting rights (WVR) shares from the southbound channel of the cross-border trading system.

CanSino Biologics, founded by a group of Chinese vaccination industry experts from Canada, has filed for a listing in Hong Kong.

Equity investor sentiment remains fragile as buyers become more bearish on global markets because of heightened economic tensions between the US and China. Some investors see this as the most potent risk to equity markets since the eurozone debt crisis.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has sanctioned a former Standard Chartered executive in Hong Kong for IPO-related offences.

Onshore DCM bankers are having a busy week in the Panda bond market. Two returning issuers have lined up onshore transactions this week, as they seek to profit from looser liquidity and falling yields in China.

Huarong Investment Stock Corp has returned to the loan market for a HK$3bn ($382m) dual currency borrowing, offering similar terms as last year.