Northeast Asia

Chinese issuers have seen bond prices ebb and flow in recent weeks, as the market prepared for and then reacted to the Chinese sovereign’s $2bn issuance last week. The deal caused a massive price tightening across Asia, but the dive in credit spreads proved short-lived. Morgan Davis and Addison Gong report.

The dim sum market’s recent issuance run is set to continue after Hitachi Capital (UK) priced a three year deal on November 2 – less than two months after the issuer sold a Formosa bond.

State-owned China Minmetals Corporation on Wednesday rolled out a dollar-denominated perpetual bond, raising $1bn from the deal. The company was able to price at a tight level, especially when its low step-up is taken into account.

A trio of Chinese firms begun pursuing IPOs in the US this week that could raise more than $1bn between them.

The Canadian subsidiary of Korea National Oil Corp priced a $200m tap of its five year bonds to help fund one of its projects, and managed to price 12.5bp inside where the original notes came in September.

Busy seasons get the best of all of us. The sleep deprivation, the late nights of mixing caffeine and booze, and the camaraderie we bankers feel working to exhaustion as part of a team is something I dearly miss.

China has not done enough to ease the concerns of international bond investors about onshore market access and risk — a failure which is set to torpedo the chances of Chinese bonds of entering Bloomberg-Barclays Global Aggregate Index this year, a Goldman Sachs economist has said.

Property giant China Vanke Co and HNA Group Co came to the market on Thursday with dollar bonds, taking vastly different approaches. Vanke opted for a tenor of 10 years, but HNA kept it ultra-short.

ANZ has promoted Chris Raciti, a senior loans banker who looked after North Asia, to CEO of its Korean arm, the bank said in a press release on Wednesday.

China Literature has priced its listing at the top of guidance, raising HK$8.3bn ($1.06bn) after closing the books hundreds of times oversubscribed.

BNP Paribas is shaking up its equity-linked unit in Asia with the transfer of a senior banker to Singapore and a new hire, sources close to the matter said.

China’s ability to lock in a $2bn tightly priced bond sale last week after a 13 year hiatus from the market comes as little surprise. But the price that China received, and the statements it made with the sale are worth talking about. This triumphant dollar bond return not only squeezed bond prices to new lows, but it also allowed China to prove that it does not need foreign investors — it wants them.