Greater China

The heavily oversubscribed books for the year’s first three Asia ex-Japan bond deals should not be taken as a sign that issuers will have an easy time in 2016. With macro concerns linked to China once again rearing their ugly head, market participants are predicting a tough year ahead. Rev Hui reports.

China has taken its first step towards fulfilling its environmental ambitions, unveiling guidelines for issuing green bonds in its interbank bond market.

Barclays is preparing to let go of investment banking staff in Asia as the UK lender continues to wind down its presence in non-core markets.

Two senior bankers from Royal Bank of Scotland’s defunct Asian loans division have moved to Banco Santander.

Hungary will meet investors in Hong Kong and Singapore as it prepares ground to issue the first ever sovereign dim sum bond from the CEEMEA region.

Jiangsu NewHeadLine (NHL) broke new ground this week, selling the first high yield bond from a local government financing vehicle. Market participants expect this to be the first of many to come, as the asset class offers both a government link and a yield pick-up over investment grade counterparts.

The Chinese circuit breaker mechanism shut down stock trading for the second time in just four days on January 7. Despite the 12% drop in the Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) since end of 2015, Macquarie expects MSCI to finally green light A-shares inclusion for its popular global stock indices in June.

Swire Properties received a good reception for its $500m bond on January 6, capturing an order book that was more than three times bigger thanks to its safe haven status in a volatile market.

A trio of Chinese companies are seeking to list in Hong Kong, having filed draft prospectuses with the city’s stock exchange on Tuesday.

Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia is set to make its first outing to the international bond market having mandated three banks to arrange a series of fixed income meetings.

The Chinese auto ABS market is revving up for 2016 with Volkswagen poised to launch a Rmb2.99bn ($460m) Driver China Three next week.

The October 2015 launch of the cross-border interbank payment system (CIPS) opened the door to creating a global RMB payment infrastructure. But, for now, the limited number of participants involved dampens the new infrastructure's potential impact.