ICBC

China Huarong Asset Management pulled off a HK$17.83bn ($2.30bn) IPO on October 22, pricing one of Hong Kong’s largest listings this year just a few cents off the bottom of the initial range. But the price tag has sparked debate among bankers, with some saying the issuer was pushing its luck.

In this round-up, the Swiss franc set to become directly convertible with RMB, CCB gets a Zurich branch, QDII2 could launching in Shanghai FTZ, booming RMB trade in Korea, Los Angeles tries to get the edge, DBS launches in Qingdao to leverage Belt and Road plans, and CSOP launches two new China ETFs in New York.

With China’s President Xi Jinping due to arrive on Monday for his first state visit to the UK, the People’s Bank of China (“PBoC”) decided to launched its debut CNH central bank note in London on the same day, mandating HSBC and ICBC as joint global co-ordinators.

The next stage of RMB internationalisation needs to focus on improving the connectivity between the onshore and offshore market to improve liquidity. This could be done encouraging more foreign entities to raise funds through Panda bonds and providing more offshore investment routes for onshore RMB, says Zhang Weiwu, general manager of ICBC Singapore, to GlobalRMB.

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.

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.

ICBCIL Finance, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ICBC, has picked banks to work on its return to the international bond market, in what would only be its second dollar deal.

China Reinsurance Corp and China Huarong Asset Management have kicked off the investor education phase of their respective Hong Kong IPOs, with both targeting multi-billion dollar offerings.

Dongfeng Motor Group is set to meet investors ahead of what will be its first offshore bond. The company has opted for a euro deal as it aims to use proceeds to pay back part of a bridge loan in that currency.

China Reinsurance is slated to start gauging demand for its $2bn Hong Kong IPO on October 5, with books set to open a week later, according to a banker working on the transaction.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) opened books on Tuesday for a dollar tier two offering, taking advantage of the last issuance window before this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The issuer is replicating the bullet structure used by Bank of China in its 2014 offering, a deal which saw a blowout response.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has mandated five banks to work on a US dollar-denominated Basel III tier two trade.