Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group

Isabel Mahony, who had been head of fixed income sales and trading EMEA and Asia ex-Japan at SMBC Nikko Capital Markets, has left to the firm to join children's magazine Scoop as chief financial officer.

The new-look Fox Corp made its dollar bond debut this week as the technical backdrop in the investment grade continued to improve with tightening spreads and thinner new issue concessions.

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) has launched a $700m multi-tranche loan into general syndication, raising some debate among bankers about the tight pricing on offer.

In this round-up, China’s foreign exchange reserves rebounded slightly for the second month in a row, Standard Chartered’s index for international RMB usage fell again, and China's consumer price index (CPI) inflation decelerated at the close of 2018.

As is becoming traditional in the European corporate bond market, car finance issuers sold the first new issues of the year. The fact the market had to wait just one day was a positive, considering that the backdrop was largely unchanged from the end of 2018, when the market had been difficult to access. However, there were some warning signs other issuers will do well to heed.

The European corporate bond market had to wait just one day for the first new issue of 2019. Some participants had expected volatility in the global financial markets to result in a blank first week for corporates, but finance subsidiaries of Renault and Toyota opted to start their financing for the year on Thursday.

Equate Group, the Kuwaiti petrochemical producer, has amended and extended its $1.9bn term loan and $1bn revolving credit facility, achieving a reduction in pricing and strong demand from international lenders.

Housing Development Finance Corp is taking the Samurai loan route for its second syndicated financing of the year.

After its successful debut in the Chinese ABS market, Genius Auto Finance, the joint venture between Geely Automobile Holdings and BNP Paribas Personal Finance, scored an equally popular follow-up deal at an even tighter price.

Loans syndicate bankers in Asia are keeping busy until the end of the year with new deal launches from across the region.

State Bank of India’s $500m loan is now in limited syndication after the senior lenders were mandated in October.

Element Materials Technology, the UK materials testing company owned by Bridgepoint, was looking for a small loan extension this week, and seeking consent from its investors for higher leverage ratios under the loan covenants.