Northeast Asia

HSBC's Asia profit before tax from global banking and markets slipped 33% to $654m in the fourth quarter of last year from $972m in Q4 2015, mirroring a fall in income.

HSBC outlined in its annual results announcement on Tuesday some of the difficulties it is facing in the Chinese market, but also said it was raising its revenue targets for the RMB business in 2017.

Chinese solar power company United Photovoltaics Group grabbed investors on Monday for a $100m tap of its debut notes, managing to hit its approved $350m fundraising cap.

China Securities Regulatory Commission has given the nod to Bank of Communications Co to spin off and list its investment banking arm in Hong Kong, according to a filing with the city’s exchange.

China YuHua Education Corp was expected to close its HK$1.9bn ($244.8m) IPO on Tuesday as scheduled — but price sensitivity among investors meant finding the right pricing level was posing a challenge as GlobalCapital Asia went to press.

The Hong Kong government launched a new 10 year dollar sukuk on Tuesday morning, seizing the opportunity to set a new benchmark after previously only selling five year sukuk.

China is understood to have tweaked its renminbi fixing mechanism by reducing the reference window of the baskets of currencies it tracks.

Asia DCM has seen a steady supply of South Korean issuers so far in 2017, with Korea Development Bank becoming the latest to venture out with dollar-denominated bonds.

Citic and Xinyuan Real Estate are out with their respective bonds on a busy Tuesday in the dollar debt market, as China Jinmao Holdings Group also announces a tender plus new issue as part of its liability management.

Investors can now hedge their Chinese portfolio during European trading hours following the launch of CSI300 index futures contracts on Eurex, the continent’s largest derivatives exchange.

Mongolia has mandated banks for a new dollar deal to be issued in part to fund an exchange offer for the Development Bank of Mongolia’s bonds maturing next month. The announcement comes just after the International Monetary Fund agreed to a $5.5bn bailout for the debt ridden country.

Two and a half years after the launch of the first pilot free trade zone in Shanghai, the authorities appear ready to inaugurate a third batch of FTZs. But recent moves to restrict capital outflows have ended up hurting foreign enterprises, dealing a blow to China’s efforts to open its capital account.