Northeast Asia

Kangde Xin Composite Material Group has made its debut in the offshore loan market, launching a $200m three year deal into syndication.

Green bonds have become one of the hottest topics in finance, taking their place alongside project finance and China’s Belt and Road as the necessary buzzwords on every investor’s lips. But green financing is more than just a passing fad for Japan’s strongest issuers. In a market defined by a famously rigid investor base, they are attempting to build a market that can be sustainable in every sense of the word. GlobalCapital sat down with some of Japan’s leading issuers, analysts, bankers and policy bankers to discuss where green and social financing is heading.

It might be easy to imagine that Japan’s top credits have an easy time accessing the international bond market. Compared to high yield or debut issuers, that may be so. But a strong rating and an important role in public policy bring with them certain responsibilities — not least of which is keeping funding costs down. The rise in dollar interest rates, and the volatility that is sure to result, thus represents a conundrum for these issuers. What is the right price for a dollar bond? What is the correct attitude to maturity adjustment? GlobalCapital asked these and other questions during a roundtable discussion that took place in Tokyo shortly before the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2018.

Japanese investors’ desperation to boost their yields is helping them shed an ultra-conservative image that has long defined them. The move is overdue but as more international borrowers turn to the yen markets for funding, the increasing flexibility of the buy-side is helping to usher in new structures and international standards. Rashmi Kumar reports.

Japanese issuers are tapping the international bond market in droves, pushing volumes to a record in 2017. The market is set to get a further boost this year, as more corporations enter the fray. Rashmi Kumar reports.

Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE Corp, which has failed to comply with a covenant on a $450m syndicated loan due in July, has requested lenders to waive the breach, according to bankers close to the situation.

Chinese company Avic International Leasing has returned to the offshore loan market for a $200m borrowing, according to a banker who has received the invitation.

South Korea’s Busan Bank raised Rmb500m ($78.62m) from its first Formosa bond last Friday, taking advantage of the arbitrage opportunity to swap the deal back to dollars.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is struggling to find the long term RMB funding it needs in both onshore and offshore markets, treasurers at the development bank told GlobalRMB at their head office in Manila.

Chinese property developer Kaisa Group Holdings has tapped Edward Lau Fu Keung, a former Deutsche Bank employee, as its chief financial officer.

Welcome back to our Monday newsletter. In this round-up, Trump dream team hits Great Wall, Bond Connect flows keep growing and new Shanghai Stock Exchange chairman is appointed.

Property firm Greentown China Holdings has returned to the offshore debt market for a $630m term loan to refinance a similar deal sealed in 2016.