South Asia

The Asia ex-Japan debt capital market was crowded with dollar issuers on January 13, with two investment grade bonds and two high yield notes opening in the morning.

A $1.775bn loan for ONGC Videsh, the international arm of India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp, has gone into general syndication, offering incoming banks all-ins below 112bp.

India finally has a formal green bond framework after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) approved a draft proposal released at the end of last year.

Vedanta Resources has launched a tender offer for a portion of its $1.25bn 5.5% convertible bonds due this year to be executed via a modified Dutch auction method, according to its dealer banks.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has finally taken off, with the country’s newly-unified bourse inaugurated on Monday after being in the works for the better part of a decade.

Citi has created a consolidated Asia Pacific debt syndicate team as it seeks to take advantage of the growing relevance of local currency markets, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Tata Motors has made a rapid return to the international loan market for a refinancing worth $250m, launching the deal just a few weeks after signing a $600m fundraising.

India’s IDBI Bank has named a group of seven banks to manage a qualified institutional placement, according to a source involved in the transaction.

Bank of Ceylon has decided to pull a $100m loan launched at the end of October 2015 in favour of raising more short-term funding.

Loans bankers have traded in cautious optimism for realism this year, as weaker currencies and loosening monetary conditions across Asia are expected to weigh on demand for foreign currency debt. Even silver linings such as a potential pick-up in loan activity from India and increased outbound M&A will provide little respite, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

Allocations are out for a $145m loan backing the Blackstone Group’s acquisition of Serco’s business process outsourcing assets in India.

India’s stock market regulator has published consultation papers on real estate and infrastructure investment trusts while Singapore’s financial regulatory authority has firmed up its rules for real estate investment trusts (Reits).