Singapore

A group of banks is firming up a $400m loan to back Baring Private Equity Asia’s bid for precision mechanical parts maker Interplex Holdings.

Property development firm Frasers Centrepoint is toying with the idea of floating a real estate investment trust (Reit), backed by its Australian industrial assets, on Singapore’s main board.

LCH.Clearnet, the clearing business majority owned by the London Stock Exchange Group, has been granted clearing house status by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Commodity trader Gunvor Singapore has begun talks for a loan to refinance a $1.0627bn dual tranche revolver it wrapped up in July last year.

Nehchal Khanna, a managing director at Morgan Stanley’s investment bank, is leaving the firm.

Lorna Greene, a former Commerzbank banker, has resurfaced as a member of National Australia Bank’s Asia DCM team.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange and Singapore Exchange have cemented a strategic partnership that will allow Taiwanese brokers to directly trade Singapore-listed securities.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has published a substantially revised set of data on Singapore’s RMB deposit pool, showing RMB liquidity was lower by as much as 27% than previously stated.

RBS's former head of Asia Pacific loan markets, Aditya Agarwal, joined Maybank on Monday as the regional head of loan syndication, according to sources.

Singapore's Housing Development Board returned to the domestic market last week, raising S$1bn ($700m) from a deal that showcased the issuer’s strong credentials among Singapore dollar bond investors.

Waste to energy firm Jinjiang Environmental is planning an IPO in Singapore to raise up to $500m in the first half of the year, according to sources close to the transaction.

Barclays beat a hasty retreat this week from the bulk of its investment banking operations in Asia, shuttering offices in multiple countries and slashing hundreds of jobs amid a wider global cull in costs and personnel. It did not pull any punches, with the cuts stretching across the equities, loans and bonds products. John Loh reports.