Greater China

Nomura’s head of equity syndicate for Asia ex-Japan Ortwin Gierhake is no longer with the firm, sources close to the matter said.

Chinese president Xi Jinping delivered the message everybody wanted to hear: despite the trade spat with the US, China will keep opening up its markets to foreign firms. But the speech was light on substance. The remarks feel like more of China’s vintage ‘stall and delay’ strategy rather than the much-touted ‘new era’. That could backfire, especially since Donald Trump seems hell-bent on making his aggressive trade policy towards China a reality.

Chinese real estate companies Cifi Holdings Group Co and Fujian Yango Group Co rolled out three year dollar bonds on Thursday, paying investors hefty premiums to get their deals done.

Yuexiu Property Company priced a two-tranche dollar bond on Thursday but decided to ditch a potential offshore renminbi deal. Separately, Peking University Founder Group Co returned with another bond with a keepwell structure for $425m.

China rejects suggestions that it is speeding up liberalisation due to US pressure, regulators tout the rebooting of outbound investment channels, and China International Capital Corporation (CICC) and KraneShares make an ETF tracking Chinese internet companies available in renminbi.

China-based Daqo New Energy Corp, which makes silicon wafers for solar cells, has bagged $110m after pricing its follow-on of American Depository Shares (ADS) at the bottom of guidance.

Tucker Highfield, Credit Suisse’s head of equity syndicate for Asia ex-Japan, has left the firm to join Bank of America Merrill Lynch, according to sources.

Citi has appointed one of its most senior bankers Angel Ng as head of Hong Kong and Macau, according to a press release on Friday.

China Jinmao Holdings hit the Panda market for the first time in 2018 on Wednesday, raising Rmb3bn ($476.9m). The three year bond priced just one basis point above a Panda of the same tenor sold by another real estate issuer a week earlier.

Rating: A2/A-/A-

Hong Kong’s annual Rugby Sevens tournament has just ended, leaving bankers, executives and journalists nursing terrible hangovers and promising that next year will be different.

HSBC has created a new head of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) position for Asia Pacific, naming Mukhtar Hussain to the job.