Greater China

Portugal’s planned Panda bond is “being finalised” and the sovereign is “looking closely” at the green bond market, according to the country’s minister of finance.

Agile Group Holdings printed a smaller-than-expected $200m bond on Wednesday, struggling to source demand in spite of a generous yield, raising questions about the timing of the transaction.

Analysts can sometimes find it hard to do due diligence on Chinese companies. The language barrier, local regulations and differences in accounting standards all need to be dealt with. They also need to consider the distinct possibility they are being fed a large helping of absolute piffle.

A NT$11.7bn ($382m) accelerated bookbuild in shares of Yageo lit up Taiwan’s equity capital market this week. Sole bookrunner BNP Paribas surprised rival bankers by winning the mandate, especially given how rare large and liquid Taiwanese fundraisings have been this year. John Loh reports.

In a sign of warming relations between China and Germany, regulators in China gave Deutsche Bank the licence to underwrite corporate bonds in the interbank market. But the bank has its sights set on a bigger prize — the right to joint lead underwrite Panda bonds for corporate issuers.

Lukewarm demand for recent floating rate notes, and their underperformance in the secondary market, has raised a key question for Asian issuers: are investors falling out of love with dollar floaters? Morgan Davis finds out.

CNFinance Holdings has filed for a $200m flotation of American Depositary Shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

European and Asian stock markets have fell sharply on Wednesday morning as investors attempted to position for escalation in trade hostilities between the US and China.

Stock Connect and Bond Connect are international investors’ favourite channels to tap the onshore capital markets thanks to their simplicity compared with other access programmes, according to a survey by Standard Chartered.

Ronshine China Holdings reopened a 2021 bond on Tuesday, adding $225m to a three year puttable line sealed in January this year. The deal is the latest in a series of capital raising exercises designed to ease the firm’s refinancing burden.

In a damning assessment, a European business lobby says China’s foreign ownership reform in the financial sector has done little to help foreign firms compete in the onshore market, and calls on Beijing to grant international institutions more freedom to engage in cross-border services.

In a sign of warming relations between China and Germany, Chinese authorities said they would let Deutsche Bank underwrite corporate bonds in the interbank market. The bank is hoping to grab two different types of underwriting licences, GlobalRMB has learned.