Greater China

China Reinsurance (Group) Corp and China Cinda Asset Management Co ventured out on a busy Thursday with their respective five year prints that saw investors stand firmly by their sides. The two took a combined $3.8bn.

China Boqi Environmental Co is seeking approval from Hong Kong’s bourse to launch an IPO, according to a filing on Thursday.

Gome Electrical Appliances Holding opened books for a benchmark-sized Reg S debut trade on Friday morning via sole bookrunner Barclays.

In this round-up, Hong Kong’s RMB deposits dropped to a near six-year low, the Mutual Recognition of Funds scheme saw meagre flows to Mainland and Hong Kong funds, and the Stock Connect had a surge in net purchases in February. Plus, a recap of our stories this week.

Corporate treasurers and financial institutions feel that the Panda bond market has great potential as a funding venue, but regulators and industry bodies will need to push for reforms to make it viable.

China Development Bank jumped on the floating rate note (FRN) bandwagon this week, bagging $3bn equivalent and adding its name to a list of issuers that recently sold bonds in the format. With demand rather than supply driving deals, and with interest rate hikes looming, the stage is nicely set for more FRN trades, writes Addison Gong.

Credit Suisse has made Ali Naqvi head of its Asia Pacific global markets division, less than a year after the team went through a restructuring.

Two firms stole the headlines in the Panda bond market this week, with Shimao Property Holdings filing for a new programme and China Orient Asset Management (International) Holdings’ cancelling its planned outing.

Hangzhou Mi Lu Technology Co, which owns Chinese social media platform kktv5.com, is laying the groundwork for a Hong Kong IPO this year, according to bankers close to the matter.

The heat is on for IPOs in south-east Asia, with banks staging charm offensives towards investors during pre-marketing.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is set to pull out all the stops to woo energy giant Saudi Aramco to list on the bourse, with its chief executive describing it as a “match made in heaven” this week. But the HKEX has even bigger ambitions — to move from an exchange dominated by Chinese companies to one with foreign issuers, writes Jonathan Breen.

Events, including a rise in the probability of a March interest rate hike and US President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress, did not hold investors back from jumping into deals from Grand China Air, China Aircraft Leasing Group (CALC) and Hong Kong Express Airways (HK Express) on Tuesday.