Northeast Asia

Railway and toll road constructor Shandong Hi-Speed Group became the latest issuer to opt for a short tenor for its bond this week, in a bid to speed up the issuance process while keeping the yield low.

China YuHua Education Corp has launched bookbuilding for a sub-one year convertible bond that could raise up to HK$800m ($102.1m).

Hong Kong’s Dah Sing Bank priced a popular $225m Basel III-compliant tier two deal, starting the market on a strong note in a year where more than $24bn of capital bonds from Asia are coming up for call.

Zhenro Properties Group bagged $200m from a short-dated bond on Tuesday — being strategic with its choice of a 363-day tenor, while also finding an opportunistic issuance window on a day market sentiment was on a high.

China Water Affairs has closed a $300m loan launched last November, with 16 participants joining the deal in syndication.

Société Générale is strengthening its debt capital market capabilities in Asia Pacific by creating a new Japan team under Yohei Abo.

Haitong International Securities has returned to the loan market for a HK$13.8bn ($1.7bn) refinancing led by a 16-strong group of mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners.

The National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (Nafmii) is gearing up to unveil new standards for the Chinese rating industry this year.

Oliver Brinkmann has joined JP Morgan as head of corporate banking for Asia Pacific, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Citi has named two new co-heads for the debt capital markets syndicate desk in Asia Pacific, succeeding James Arnold who is taking up another position within the bank.

As bitcoin investors reel from losses sustained last year, UK bitcoin exchange group Coinfloor has spun off its futures arm into a new exchange that will be owned by a number of firms and prominent individuals in the cryptocurrency market.

Aircraft leasing company Avolon has returned to the offshore syndications market for a $300m loan.