Singapore

ICBC has established the first round-the-clock RMB clearing facility in its Singapore branch, the bank said in an August 4 statement.

Deutsche Bank’s head of investment banking advisory and coverage for southeast Asia, Parvati Banati, has exited the German lender, according to sources.

Singapore-listed Frasers Centrepoint (FCL), which raised a £300m ($468.5m) five year loan from Barclays, BNP Paribas and Standard Chartered to fund the acquisition of boutique hotel chain Malmaison Hotel du Vin, has opened the loan into wider syndication.

Singapore Exchange (SGX) has launched evaluated bond prices (EBP) on its website, which will provide market participants with secondary prices for SGX-listed bonds.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has made its Singapore and Hong Kong bond teams redundant as it continues to carry out a restructuring that will substantially reduce its presence in Asia.

Chery HuiYin Motor Finance Service Co is seeking to list in Hong Kong via sole sponsor CICC. The automotive financing company filed a preliminary prospectus with the stock exchange on July 31.

Nikko Asset Management has made several changes to its Asia business with the promotion of two senior executives in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The Lion City has been trying to develop a covered bond market for years but progress has been slow. That's mostly been down to the fact that its banks do not have first access to most of the mortgage loans they lend out. That privilege lies with the country’s pension fund, the Central Provident Fund (CPF).

Singapore can finally lay claim to a covered bond market after its largest bank, DBS, this week printed the country’s first deal in the asset class. The build-up was hardly plain sailing, but that did not stop DBS executing a very successful trade that will serve as a benchmark for its peers, writes Rev Hui.

Ezion Holdings chose an unusual structure for its most recent bond outing in Singapore dollars. The borrower sold a bond with the support of a loan facility from sole lead DBS, which allowed it to save around 300bp in funding costs.

Ezion Holdings has opened books for a five year Singapore dollar bond offering, which is supported by a loan facility from DBS, the first time such a structure has been seen in the city state.

It has been mooted for years but investors are finally getting their first taste of covered bonds out of Singapore with the Lion City’s largest bank DBS opening books to a dollar offering on July 29.