South Asia

India’s Dr Lal PathLabs has firmed up terms for its Rp6.32bn ($95m) IPO, with the small size of the transaction giving leads the confidence of a positive response when the deal launches.

India’s Reliance Industries is back in the market to refinance a $1bn loan from 2010, just days after signing a $1.5bn facility.

A $125m loan for Bharat PetroResources International (BPRL), a subsidiary of Bharat Petroleum Corp, has wound up with demand driven by Taiwanese lenders.

DM Wenceslao and Associates has trimmed the maximum offer price on its IPO of up to Ps10.73bn ($227m) to Ps25 from Ps44, as it gears up to launch and price the deal in the coming weeks.

OCBC has hired David Cheng from Deutsche Bank to be head of corporate finance. He will run the Singapore bank’s equity capital markets, M&A and equity syndication teams.

Birla Carbon and Fiat India have launched their respective dollar loans into syndication, with the former seeking $925m and the latter $250m.

India’s Reliance Industries signed its $1.47bn dual-currency loan on November 20 in Dubai, sealing the deal after commitments from a 30-strong group lenders.

Bain Capital is making its exit from India’s Hero MotoCorp just about a year after it last pared down its holdings. The latest block, worth roughly Rp7.7bn ($116m), is still unfinished however as investors can only be crossed on Thursday when markets re-open after a public holiday.

The Indian government has told banks vying for the mandate for a $3bn sell-down in Coal India to make their final presentations on Thursday, according to the Department of Disinvestment.

Asia's green financing market received a boost this week with IDBI Bank bringing India’s second dollar-denominated bond. Market participants expect the deal to be followed by more such trades from the country.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the country’s financial markets watchdog, is understood to be vexed about the lack of retail participation in two recent high-profile IPOs. But this is much ado about nothing, and it would be a mistake for the regulator to start meddling again to protect the interests of small investors.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) have agreed to extend bilateral co-operation and technical assistance to each other under a new pact.