Greater China

Wenzhou Kangning Hospital opened bookbuilding for its HK$681m ($88m) listing on Monday, following in the footsteps of Dali Foods Group by placing out stock to just a few cornerstone investors.

China Huarong Asset Management has lined up 15 banks for what will be its second outing of the year, while Beijing Properties is looking to make its offshore debut.

Nine offshore RMB clearing banks have been given approvals from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) to participate in China’s onshore foreign exchange derivative sector, marking another step in China's capital market liberalisation China’s capital market.

A $500m five year loan for Stats ChipPac, which launched in mid September, has received commitments from three banks, according to sources familiar with the deal.

Future Land Development Holdings breathed some life back to the Asia ex-Japan high yield bond market this week with a red hot $250m bond that was close to 10x subscribed.

LVGEM (China) Real Estate Investment Company is looking to raise HK$2.3bn ($300m) from a placement of shares with the proceeds intended to go towards funding a big chunk of an acquisition.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China New York has wrapped up its second offshore bond, sealing $1bn on November 5. But while Asian interest was strong, the issuer’s aggressive pricing tactic meant demand from US investors was lacklustre.

In this round-up, Chinese government sets capital account convertibility goal for 2020, IMF yet to decide on RMB SDR inclusion, Shenzhen Connect unlikely in 2015, and cross-border RMB trade settlement in Hong Kong hits new record.

They knew it was coming, but even seasoned bankers at Standard Chartered could not easily shrug off this week’s update from chief executive Bill Winters about the scope and scale of cuts due at the bank.

Dali Foods Group Co has given the Hong Kong IPO market a burst of excitement, launching a HK$10.4bn ($1.34bn) listing that could become the biggest float by a privately-owned company in the city this year. Bankers are touting it as the first deal in a long time to conduct a real institutional bookbuilding rather than simply relying on Chinese state-owned enterprises for demand. Rashmi Kumar reports.

HSBC took a big step forward in furthering its China ambitions this week, entering into an onshore joint venture securities firm with Shenzhen Qianhai Financial Holdings. The first priority is to launch an onshore debt business but the bank has ambitions eventually to offer a full range of investment banking services. Rev Hui reports.

Primary activity has finally returned to the Asia ex-Japan high yield market following a hiatus of close to three months, with Future Land Development Holdings launching a deal on Thursday. While the pipeline remains thin, market participants are taking heart that not all is lost for the asset class, writes Rev Hui.