Hong Kong SAR

China Huarong Asset Management launched its HK$19.6bn ($2.52bn) IPO on Thursday, with the deal off to a good start thanks to cornerstone investors.

CDB Leasing Co, an arm of China Development Bank, is planning to raise around $1bn via a Hong Kong IPO in the first half of 2016, with three banks expected to lead the transaction.

China Reinsurance’s HK$15.6bn ($2.01bn) listing in Hong Kong is multiple times covered, with the leads on the deal telling investors that pricing is expected in the upper half of guidance.

The successful launch of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect last year is spurring the development of new trading links in Asia. But several obstacles stand in the path of more stock market linkages, according Carol Hsu, Professor in the Department of Information Management, National Taiwan University.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has lost a member of its equity capital markets team in Hong Kong.

Denox Environmental & Technology Holdings is slated to seek a listing hearing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this week, with pre-marketing likely to start the following week if the IPO is approved.

The chief executive of Hong Kong’s Securities and Future’s Commission (SFC), Ashley Alder has given a robust defence of the regulator's co-operation with its Chinese peers saying that Stock Connect would have been impossible without it. Hong Kong will also remain the key gateway between the Mainland and global financial markets, he argued.

Metro Retail Stores Group started pre-marketing its Ps5.61bn ($119.90m) IPO on Monday, with joint global co-ordinators BPI Capital and Deutsche Bank expected to meet investors over the week.

CRRC Corp has received the thumbs up from its board to sell a convertible bond worth up to $1bn, making it the first Chinese issuer to tap the offshore equity-linked market following the National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) overhaul of foreign debt sales.

Fixed income specialist SC Lowy has set up a par loan trading platform in Asia, as it seeks to tap into the growth of the secondary loan market in the continent.

China Reinsurance opened its HK$15.6bn ($2.01bn) IPO with a bang on Monday, putting around half the deal in the hands of cornerstones and sending out a covered book message just hours after launch.

Hengtou Securities priced its HK$1.54bn ($198.32m) IPO at the wide end of guidance on October 8, with support coming mostly from Hong Kong and Chinese investors.