UBS

Insurance capital is finding unexpected favour even as most other European debt markets are stopped in their tracks. With insurers rushing to take in fresh subordinated debt ahead of new EU regulations next month, and investors increasingly receptive to higher yielding instruments from a less volatile sector than banks, more than €2.3bn ($2.85bn) of deals emerged this week. And as Nathan Collins and Graham Bippart report, more could emerge in the coming days.

Croatian food retailer Agrokor has mandated banks for a Euro-commercial paper (ECP) deal and is hoping to price it next week before the markets close for Christmas.

While Dalian Wanda and Linekong are hoping for success with their IPOs, M800 has a different story to tell. It was looking to close an up to $150m IPO in Hong Kong before the end of the year, but has postponed the deal to avoid going up against Dalian and BAIC Motor, which wrapped up its IPO this week.

The Hong Kong IPO market was off to a busy week, with Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties and Linekong Interactive rushing to complete chunky deals before the markets break for Christmas. But the flood of activity also left one victim in its wake, as M800 chose to delay bookbuilding until January rather than compete with its rivals for investor attention.

China Orient Asset Management has opened books for a tap to a dual trancher it issued in August, when the borrower made a stellar return to dollars with the five and 10 year issue.

Nirvana Asia has priced its Hong Kong IPO at the bottom of the price range to raise HK$2.02bn ($261m), with retail investors coming in huge numbers and forcing the funeral services company to trigger the second level of clawback.

Croatian food retailer Agrokor has mandated banks for a euro commercial paper (ECP) deal and is hoping to price it next week before the markets close for Christmas.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) took plenty of plaudits last week, with a unique triple currency additional tier one (AT1) transaction that included a record-breaking offshore renminbi tranche. While some say that the trade was a testament to the depth of the CNH market, that is an argument too far. This was anything but a conventional trade.

Daimler-backed carmaker BAIC Motor capped a busy Monday for the Hong Kong equity capital markets and its first day of bookbuilding with a HK$12.15bn ($1.57bn) IPO that had secured enough demand from cornerstone and anchor investors to cover the book in full. Investors flocked to the listing after seeing that the company was willing to price at a decent range.

Auris Luxembourg, a holding company for Siemens Audiology Solutions, launched on Monday the high yield bond part of the financing package for the hearing aid maker's takeover by EQT Partners.

Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties has built strong momentum for its HK$29.76bn ($3.8bn) Hong Kong IPO, which launched to the market on Monday morning, bringing in 11 cornerstone investors to take up nearly $2bn of the trade. With the deal coming to the market very close to the end of the year, the presence of big-name institutions and sovereign wealth funds at the top helps support the company’s story, say bankers.

M800, which had been looking to close an up to $150m IPO in Hong Kong before the end of the year, has postponed the deal to avoid going up against BAIC Motor and Dalian Wanda.