Greater China

Moody’s changed its outlook on the Chinese government’s credit rating to negative on Wednesday, putting the blame on weakening financials, falling currency reserves and uncertainty about the country’s ability to implement economic reforms. But the move drew limited reaction from market participants as China’s economic troubles have been well flagged.

Citi is set to end a decade long association with China Guangfa Bank (CGB) having announced this week that it will be selling its entire stake in the lender to China Life Insurance.

UBS has created an new Asia Debt Financing Group, combining its existing debt and leveraged financing teams, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Nomura’s head of investment banking for Asia ex-Japan is retiring from the bank, one of a number of senior staff who are set to leave the firm, according to internal memos seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

IBM exited its entire position in Chinese tech firm Lenovo this week, raising HK$1.17bn ($150m) via a block sale. It was able to offload the stock at the top end of guidance after a flood of demand from Asian hedge funds.

Bond Connect is one of the key schemes of the Hong Kong Exchange Group (HKEX) as it embarks on an ambitious plans to act as a gateway between China and the rest of the world. The programme will act as a gateway for financial institutions who don’t want direct access to China’s bond market as well as a launch pad for indices and derivative products, said chief executive Charles Li.

The CME Group will launch trading of a new dollar index futures contract in April, in collaboration with Bloomberg, with the new index including the offshore RMB (CNH) as one of its currencies.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange's 2015 revenues were bolstered by a jump in listings fees as it saw the most IPOs of any bourse in the world, according to its annual results published on Wednesday.

IBM is looking to offload its entire shareholding in Chinese tech firm Lenovo, launching a HK$1.16bn ($150m) block on Wednesday evening.

Moody’s changed the outlook on the Chinese government’s credit rating to negative on Wednesday as a result of weakening financials, falling currency reserves and uncertainty about the country’s ability to implement economic reforms.

Warburg Pincus is offloading shares in US-listed China Biologics Products via a block that could raise up to $385m.

Hong Kong-listed China Gas Holdings has broken new ground in China’s Panda bond market, becoming the first corporate issuer to take the deal proceeds offshore, several sources told GlobalCapital Asia's sister publication GlobalRMB this week.