South Asia

It has now become common for bond issuers to stress their 'Belt and Road' credentials. But China Merchants Port has become one of the first issuers to get the official blessing to use the term.

Indian specialist chemical producer Galaxy Surfactants closed books for its IPO on Wednesday and is set to raise Rp9.4bn ($146.9m) after the deal was multiple times covered by institutional investors.

The Indian government plans to merge three public sector general insurance companies into a single entity and float it on the stock exchange, finance minister Arun Jaitley said during the annual Union Budget on Thursday.

Indian brokerage JM Financial is set to bag Rp6.5bn ($101.8m) from a qualified institutional placement with no discount to its market price, as investors jostled for the shares.

Indiabulls Housing Finance brought the first social offshore rupee bond to the market on Tuesday, raising Rp3.15bn ($49.48m) through a private placement.

India’s Yes Bank raised $600m in its first offshore bond sale on Monday, as it makes international strides through its new banking unit.

A recent syndication for Omani borrower Bank Sohar made market observers take notice, thanks to the presence of Axis Bank at the top group, reflecting Indian banks’ rising eagerness to provide liquidity for foreign currency deals. Yet the country rarely features in the roadshow schedule for fundraisings — an oversight that banks should rapidly correct.

Indiabulls Housing Finance is looking to borrow an up to $200m five year loan to replace an identical fundraising from September 2016.

Trans Maldivian Airways has landed back in the Asian loan market for a $305m senior secured deal, following its acquisition by a consortium led by Bain Capital Private Equity at the end of last year.

Export-Import Bank of India took home $1bn in a carefully crafted single-tranche deal on Thursday that reeled in US investors.

CreditAccess Grameen filed a draft prospectus for its IPO in India on Wednesday, aiming to raise around Rp15bn ($236m), according to a banker on the trade.

Options volumes were up 11% in exchanges around the world last year, while futures were down 6.6%, according to new data unveiled by the Futures Industry Association.