Japan

Sumitomo Forestry, the Japanese forestry company that specialises in housing, became the first ever issuer of a green convertible bond this week, pricing a ¥10bn ($90m) five year zero coupon note.

Barclays was looking to sell two tranches of callable senior debt in the yen market this week, following a similar total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) eligible offering from HSBC in Japan.

Asset Value Investors, the UK money manager, is seeking to raise £100m to £200m of capital in an initial public offering in London, to invest in a small portfolio of Japanese stocks and agitate for them to distribute cash to shareholders.

Banks that deal in Yankees, including Nordea, HSBC and BPCE, raised $16bn in new funding as the market reopened with a bang after the Labor Day holiday.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank announced a mandate on Monday for its first ever euro-denominated bond. The senior notes will finance green projects. Meanwhile, new issuer Euroclear Bank completed a deal last Friday.

It is high time that the famously conservative Japanese market started embracing new practices. There are signs that modernisation is afoot.

More borrowers could look to the Euroyen format as a new funding tool in Japan, after BNP Paribas proved very popular with its offering of non-preferred senior notes this week.

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BNP Paribas is marketing two tranches of non-preferred senior debt in Euroyen format, in what has been an impressive year for the market's supply of debt from foreign banks.

Credit Suisse has named Makoto Kuwahara as chief executive officer for Japan, effective in November.

Japan telecoms company SoftBank took another step towards its flotation this week by replacing its intergroup credit with a double-B rated leveraged loan. This followed a high-yield bond sale in April with the same purpose.

The Republic of the Philippines attracted more investor demand than expected on its return after eight years to the Japanese yen bond market. Its outstanding dollar bonds outperformed in secondary trading as the new deal was being marketed.