Singapore

Singapore-based FKS Food & Agriculture has closed a $255m-equivalent dual currency deal with eight lenders.

ARA Asset Management and property company Chelsfield have raised a S$385.8m ($286m) green loan to finance the acquisition and renovation of 5One Central, a commercial building in Singapore.

Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust has launched an offering of new shares, eyeing S$1.2bn ($891.6m) to fund acquisitions across the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Singapore-based special purpose acquisition company (Spac) Tiga Acquisition Corp has set in motion a $200m listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Standard Chartered has appointed Michael Spiegel as global head of transaction banking, succeeding Lisa Robins, who is retiring from the banking industry.

Commodities trading company Glencore Agriculture is making its loan debut in Asia, seeking $300m from the syndication market as a way to establish itself in the region and show its independence from its parent. The thin pricing on offer means only banks keen to build a relationship with the company in the hope of getting ancillary business will jump in, writes Pan Yue.

MUFG Securities Asia has hired Shailesh Venkatraman for a newly-created position leading DCM origination for south and southeast Asia.

Deutsche Bank has grown its environmental, social and governance (ESG) team in Asia Pacific with a new hire.

United Overseas Bank achieved the tightest spread for a five year floating rate bank issue in Australian dollars in over 10 years this week, issuing A$750m ($532.0m) to prove that there is still demand at decade-low levels.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has substantially increased its covered bond issuance limit which had stood at 4% of assets on an issuer’s balance sheet. This, along with very strong market conditions, should help to induce the country’s borrowers, which have not printed in euros for more than two years, to make an appearance before the year is out.

Singapore-listed Mapletree Logistics Trust has raised S$650m ($479.8m) in fresh equity after boosting the size of its placement.

More Singaporean companies are making the transition to a new local currency benchmark rate in preparation for the end of Libor, with Sembcorp Industries becoming the latest firm to raise a loan linked to Sora.