Northeast Asia

Crédit Agricole sold the largest ever Samurai bond from a European bank on Friday, raising a sizeable ¥203.9bn ($1.8bn) of debt across five tranches.

Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp have launched a platform to help technology companies list and to bolster the city’s credentials as a tech investment hub.

The retail unit of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) has held a beauty parade for its Hong Kong IPO, which is expected to raise around $10bn, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Export-Import Bank of China came to the market with a two-currency, fixed and floating rate transaction on Thursday, snapping up $918m-equivalent. Its outing followed downgrades on China’s sovereign rating and that of the issuer, but buy-side concerns were well contained.

In this week’s round-up, the Hong Kong Exchange’s USDCNH futures record their second best trading volume on Wednesday, renminbi deposits in Hong Kong increase by 4.1% in April, and China and Germany agree to co-operate on trade and finance.

Bank of China and Standard Chartered (China) completed the first interest rate swaps under China’s new repurchasing fixing rate (FDR) on May 31. Experts say the recently introduced rates will better reflect liquidity in the market and work in the favour of foreign banks.

Hong Kong’s FWD Group and Chinese leasing firm Far East Horizon are wooing investors for their respective perpetual deals, while Tunghsu Group Co is gauging interest for its debut international bond.

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange have signed a memorandum of understanding to promote capital markets co-operation, in a bid to give a fillip to small and medium enterprises and innovative companies.

There was just a smattering of public sector dollar deals this week — but a wide difference in how they fared.

KommuneKredit fell short of full subscription with a three year dollar benchmark on Thursday, with few updates provided through the book building process.

The Republic of Indonesia priced a ¥100bn ($900m) bond on Wednesday, its first public Samurai deal in decades and its maiden fundraise following an upgrade to its credit rating. Although the issuer was forced to drop a 10 year tranche, its transaction was a blow-out, reflecting Japanese investors’ strong interest in foreign paper. Addison Gong reports.

Three banks will supply funds to back private equity firm Partners Group's acquisition of business process outsourcing firm SPi Global.