Northeast Asia

Zhihu, China’s largest question-and-answer platform, has set its New York Stock Exchange IPO in motion.

In this round-up, smaller Chinese firms see the slowest growth in manufacturing and services activity since mid-2020, the head of the Chinese banking and insurance regulator is wary of bubbles bursting in foreign markets, and the onshore sale of the so-called ‘carbon neutrality bonds’ moves from the interbank market to the smaller exchange market.

In this special round-up on China’s annual Two Sessions parliamentary meeting, the central government sets a conservative annual growth target for the Chinese economy in 2021, signals a modest tightening in fiscal and monetary policies, and plans to broaden regulatory oversight of the fintech sector.

Sinic Service (Holdings) is gearing up for a listing in Hong Kong, adding further momentum to the IPO market of Chinese property management service providers.

Genius Auto Finance Co priced its first auto ABS outing of the year under the Generation series on Thursday. It sold the senior class A1 tranche of the Rmb4.7bn ($726.8m) transaction at a negative spread to the onshore pricing benchmark and inside a comparable trade from this week.

China Everbright Bank switched things up for its $550m deal this week, by opting for a fixed rate note rather than the floating rate bonds it has favoured more recently.

Cheerwin Group has pocketed HK$3.07bn ($395.3m) after pricing its IPO at the top of the marketed range, according to a source close to the deal.

Hang Seng rejigs benchmark index – DBS and HSBC make changes in Malaysia

Hong Kong has begun exploring ways to allow listings by special purpose acquisition companies (Spacs), which are gaining popularity in Asia after taking the US by storm in the past year. But while the early-stage discussions show the bourse’s growth ambitions, it will have to clear numerous roadblocks to make blank-cheque firms a reality. Jonathan Breen reports.

Some banks struggle to communicate clearly with their employees about the boundaries of sexual misconduct. But using diagrams is probably a bad idea.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has finalised new rules for the sale of corporate bonds, a move that could boost the attraction of the exchange market while shaking up the operations of credit rating agencies. Addison Gong reports.

Taiwanese semiconductor distribution company WT Microelectronics is plotting a return to the loan market after an absence of almost eight years. Bankers say more companies from the sector are likely to turn to loans in 2021 as strong growth in the industry propels opportunistic fundraising. Pan Yue reports.