Southeast Asia

Vietnamese mobile device retailer Mobile World Investment Corp has made a rapid return to loans for another $100m.

Singapore has been a front-runner when it comes to moving away from Libor to a new benchmark, with its regulators, borrowers and banks playing an active role in preparing the market. The rest of Asia’s loan market should pay attention.

Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur, an Indonesian instant noodle maker, has launched a $2.05bn-equivalent acquisition loan into syndication. The rare appearance of a strong credit in the market this year means banks appear eager to join the deal, writes Pan Yue.

CP Merchandising Co, a subsidiary of Thai agro-industrial and food conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Foods, has launched its $500m debut loan into general syndication.

Credit Suisse has appointed Allan Chu as its new head of technology, media and telecom (TMT) for Asia Pacific, succeeding Alain Lam, who has moved to Chinese technology company Xiaomi Corp.

Singapore’s agribusiness company Wilmar International has raised a S$200m ($146m) bilateral loan from DBS using the country’s new interest rate benchmark.

JP Morgan has made three senior changes to its equity research team in Asean.

Thomas Hugger has more than two decades of investment experience in frontier markets. Volatility is part of the job description. But he has never faced challenges like those unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Compart Systems, a high precision metal components maker, has returned to the loan market to refinance an old borrowing from 2016, which was used to support its buyout by Platinum Private Equity.

DBS has hired Abhishek Jain from Goldman Sachs to join its mergers and acquisition team.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) sold its debut Basel III compliant additional tier one dollar bond on Thursday, becoming the first Philippine bank to do so.

US food and commodities firm Archer-Daniels-Midland Co has tapped the equity capital markets for the first time in more than a decade, using a concurrent block of Wilmar International shares and an exchangeable bond — with the same underlying stock — to raise $850m. Jonathan Breen reports.