Greater China

When China's free trade zone (FTZ) bond market was launched last December, regulators envisaged it as foreign investors’ fast lane into Chinese fixed income. But one year on, there are doubts over whether the market has a future — only one FTZ bond has been sold, and meanwhile the onshore bond market is enjoying a rapid rise.

ICE Futures Singapore, the energy, metals and forex derivatives exchange owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has admitted its fifth member, SinoPac Futures, based in Taiwan.

The bookrunners on logistics company Best’s potential $1bn US IPO have kicked off pre-marketing, according to a banker working on the deal.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has proposed the creation of national green financing vehicles to give a boost to environmentally friendly and financially sustainable infrastructure investments.

Shanghai-listed Guirenniao Co is looking to pursue a $300m bond, while the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has also approved a handful of other potential offshore issuances.

Volkswagen Finance (China) is preparing to hit the securitization market for the second time this year, only three months after its last transaction. But while the new deal retains some of the key features from VW’s last one, it will be notably smaller, raising only Rmb3.66bn ($554m).

Joy City Property, a red chip real estate developer, has picked two banks to manage its Panda bond debut.

i-Cable Communications has wrapped up its open offer, but received an underwhelming response from shareholders, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE) has rolled out a HK$17bn ($2.17bn) loan for its acquisition of Alinta Energy.

A former Goldman Sachs banker has decided to come out of retirement to join Standard Chartered in a senior management position.

Red chip Brightoil Petroleum (Holdings) has picked JP Morgan First Capital (JPMFC) to underwrite its debut Panda bond on Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE). The deal came after JP Morgan exited the joint venture (JV) earlier this year.

Veteran investment banker Chris Howe will join Credit Suisse at the end of September as head of fixed income trading for Asia Pacific.