Malaysia

Eco World International is close to sealing a deal to bring in GuocoLand Malaysia as both a cornerstone and strategic investor in its $500m Malaysia IPO, said bankers on the trade.

CIMB Group has reinstated Nazir Razak as chairman following a month-long review triggered by several money transfers involving his personal bank account.

JP Morgan’s head of Malaysia investment banking Didi Yahya has left the firm, according to sources close to the move.

Loans for financial institutions continue to flourish in general syndication, with deals for State Bank of India and Malaysia's Maybank progressing smoothly.

There is hope yet for special purpose acquisition companies in Malaysia but the regulations may need tweaking after Sona Petroleum became the first Spac to have its planned acquisition rejected by shareholders.

Seadrill has sold the remainder of its stake in SapuraKencana Petroleum via a MR774.72m ($198.35m) accelerated share sale, putting to bed a deal that failed to clear only three weeks ago.

Seadrill is in the market to sell an up to MR814m ($208m) block of shares in Malaysia’s SapuraKencana Petroleum via sole global co-ordinator and bookrunner Morgan Stanley.

Sona Petroleum has become Malaysia’s first special purpose acquisition company to have its proposed acquisition voted down by shareholders, dealing another blow to Spacs.

Maybank timed its first Basel III tier two outing in dollars well, netting $500m last Friday. Despite the turmoil surrounding the country, the Malaysian lender was encouraged by the strong performance of the sovereign’s sukuk to come out to the market in the same week.

Malaysia’s Eco World International is in the process of lining up five or six cornerstone investors for its summer listing, a source close to the deal told GlobalCapital Asia.

A pair of investment grade issuers, Maybank and JD.com, ventured into the dollar bond market on Friday albeit with quite different trades.

Despite the difficult start to the year, global financial exchanges have continued to expand their coverage of world markets with new listed products.