UBS

WuXi AppTec priced its IPO at the mid-point of the range to raise HK$7.92bn ($1.01bn), despite the deal being oversubscribed at the upper end of guidance, according to a source close to the listing.

Ice Group, the Norwegian mobile phone company, on Thursday called off its second attempt to list on the main board of the Oslo Stock Exchange, blaming turbulence in global equity markets.

Three Chinese education companies have ventured out for new loans, adding a dash of diversity to the syndication market. But they come at a time when lenders are increasingly conservative about the sector, owing to stricter regulations and amid concerns around borrowers’ financial performance, writes Pan Yue.

WuXi AppTec is set to raise about HK$7.9bn ($1.1bn) from pricing its Hong Kong listing at the mid-point of the indicative price range, according to a source close to the deal.

The US and Hong Kong IPO markets saw a raft of companies trying to catch the last window for their listings before the year end, as the short-lived rally from the US-China trade war ceasefire did little to reassure ECM bankers and investors, writes Christie Ou.

Policy lender China Development Bank printed a dual-currency, three-tranche transaction on Tuesday, raising $2.4bn-equivalent. While it paid just a couple of basis points of new issue premium for the dollar bonds amid a short-lived market rally, demand for the euro portion exceeded expectations.

China Vanke Co rode the positive momentum that followed the truce in the China and US trade war, raising $630m after an aggressive tightening in price. But the movements in the US Treasury market, including a curve inversion between three and five year notes, hit the secondary performance of the company’s bond.

In this round-up, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to hold back from new tariffs for 90 days, Bloomberg received the green light from China Foreign Exchange Trade System (Cfets) to become the new trading platform for Bond Connect and CIBM Direct, and UBS obtained approval to acquire a majority share of onshore joint venture UBS Securities.

Three Chinese borrowers with education businesses are seeking funds from retail lenders in syndication.

Bond bankers have been gripped by moves by Ben Smyth, a UBS FIG DCM banker, to take the bank to a tribunal, alleging that the global head of debt capital markets, Amir Hoveyda, had been involved in an “inappropriate transaction” and that Smyth had been bullied and passed over for promotion.

China-based Mobvista has launched bookbuilding for a potential HK$1.63bn ($208m) IPO in Hong Kong, following the listing success of some of its peers.

WuXi AppTec’s Hong Kong IPO is set to be yet another test case of investor appetite for biotechnology names, as the company kicked off its chunky HK$7.5bn ($958m) flotation this week. With all eyes on the offering, its performance in both primary and secondary can have ramifications for other listing hopefuls in the city, writes Christie Ou.