Northeast Asia

Chinese real estate related e-commerce firm Fang Holdings is accessing loan market liquidity to refinance debt, mandating one Taiwanese lender to helm a $120m fundraising.

It was a year of opposite fates for Panda and dim sum bonds in 2016 with the former reaching record heights and the latter pretty much left on the sidelines. In our first outlook piece of the year, GlobalRMB reached out to several experts to get their thoughts on what the future holds for both asset classes.

Taikang Insurance Group has mandated nine banks to arrange a dollar-denominated offering, with roadshow starting on January 9.

The year started with plenty of excitement, as the RMB gained ground against the dollar in onshore and offshore markets, activity surged in RMB futures in Hong Kong, and the third batch of free trade zones (FTZ) opened for business. Plus, a recap of our coverage.

A jump in the cost of dollar funds at Taiwanese banks is causing concern in the syndications market even as the overall direction of loan pricing remains firmly downward. Bankers in Taipei said the situation could ease by the end of the first quarter but until then, they face the hard choice of settling for lower returns or seeing their loan books stagnate. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

I think the French got it right when they recently decided that employees should be able to ignore work emails after hours.

Goldman Sachs’ ECM team in Hong Kong has shrunk, with the departure of the co-head of ECM syndicate for Asia Pacific ex-Japan.

China Aoyuan Property Group raised $250m in the first bond issuance from Asia ex-Japan this year, with investors flocking to the deal and driving the order book to a 10 times subscription.

BNP Paribas opened the block market in Asia with a W382.1bn ($316.7m) sell-down in South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group Co this week.

China’s WuXi BioLogics is looking south of the border to Hong Kong to go public, preparing an IPO that could raise $300m, according to a banker close to the deal.

The Republic of Korea looks set to be the first Asian sovereign to hit the international debt market in 2017, with plans to meet fixed income investors next week for a potential dollar bond.

ANZ has hired a former DCM syndicate banker from Citi for its Asia bonds desk.