Greater China

Houston Huang Guobin, a former Goldman Sachs coverage banker, has decamped to JP Morgan to take up the position of head of global investment banking for China.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has made three senior hires in its Asia Pacific research unit, according to a memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) took the bond market by storm this week, printing a $2bn Basel III tier two offering, the first Chinese bank capital trade since May. Despite coming during a week dominated by speculation about the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates, ICBC still managed to meet its price and size targets, offering just a small new issue premium.

A subdued north Asia equity capital market, which has barely seen any activity since August, suddenly burst into life on September 16. American car rental company Hertz reduced its stake in China Auto Rental (CAR) while Taiwan’s TWi Pharmaceuticals sold GDRs on the same day to raise a combined $187m.

HSBC and Standard Chartered are each working on their debut Panda bond issuance, aiming to launch the deals at end of September at the earliest, several sources have told GlobalRMB. If the deals come out as planned, these will also be first Panda offerings from financial institutions.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) this week released new guidelines for corporate offshore bond issuance. While the move is supposed to further simplify the process and relax the restrictions for issuers going offshore, the new rules have created a lot of uncertainty and led to fears that it will make bond issuance more difficult.

The absence of sizeable IPOs on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for nearly two months is about to come to an end, with lingerie manufacturer Regina Miracle set to launch its $200m deal next week.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has released a set of new guidelines for offshore bond issuance in either renminbi or foreign currency. The new rules move away from the current case-by-case approval system to a registration-based regime for Chinese corporates and financial institutions.

Auto finance companies are set for a return to the Chinese interbank bond market for the first time in five years, with Ford launching an Rmb2bn ($314m) trade on September 17.

State Street Corp has picked Mark England as a senior vice-president and head of asset manager sector sales for Asia, poaching him from Citibank.

Hong Kong Airlines’ on-again, off-again IPO is now off again. The short-haul carrier has pulled the plug on its $600m float, with little visibility on when the listing could next hit the runway.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) took the bond market by storm this week, printing a $2bn Basel III tier two offering, the first Chinese bank capital trade since May. Despite coming during a week dominated by speculation about the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates, ICBC still managed to meet its price and size targets, offering just a small new issue premium.