JP Morgan

JP Morgan has found itself in the spotlight for becoming the first global bank to have its IPO application returned by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since the regulator tightened the screws on listings two years ago.

The Inter-American Investment Corporation is set to become a much more frequent issuer, according to its chief financial officer.

Hong Kong financial investment firm Sun Hung Kai is in the market soliciting interest for an exchange offer that will see holders of its 2017 bonds switch to new notes maturing in 2021.

Samsung Biologics, which sent out a request for proposals for its South Korean IPO on April 29, is understood to have invited nine domestic and six international firms to submit bids.

The Argentine province of Neuquén raised $235m of bonds this week, pricing at a yield more than 150bp less than where it had talked about a similar deal last September. The province's deal is the first Argentine bond since the sovereign’s blowout return to bond markets last month.

LBBW, OP Mortgage Bank and Mortgage Bank of Finland took little time to sell their benchmark euro deals this week.

After a week of no new paper in CEEMEA, EM bankers are looking forward to a busier next week as four bonds are slated from the region and the market looks supportive enough to allow issuers to pull the trigger.

Mubadala Development Company has set the size of its bond at $500m and meetings for the deal are so far going well, said a banker close to the deal on Thursday.

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co (HDFC Life) has mandated four houses to run its IPO, which will be India’s first listing by an insurance company.

Yadea Group Holdings has opened books for its HK$1.86bn ($239.69m) IPO in Hong Kong, with the electric vehicle maker signing on $30m worth of commitments from two cornerstones.

A HK$9.7bn ($1.25bn) sell-down in Chinese insurer PICC Property and Casualty Co last weekend has injected some welcome activity into Asia’s block market, which has seen limited business since the start of the year. The success of the deal in the primary and the secondary market is expected to inspire potential sellers to take action. Jonathan Breen reports.

Barclays has this evening executed a R13bn ($900m) accelerated bookbuild in shares of Barclays Africa Group, its separately listed South African subsidiary, as the first stage in its already announced plan to divest the bank. The trade was covered in 35 minutes and multiple times oversubscribed.