Westpac

K Balasubramanian is returning to Citi as the new head of corporate banking for India, succeeding Rahul Shukla who will turn his focus to senior client coverage.

Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp has hired an experienced economist to head up its macro strategy team for Asia.

Westpac this week followed Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in taking advantage of a glut of sterling covered bond liquidity. It issued a sizeable five year sterling covered bond which is expected to provide cheaper funding than the euro or dollar equivalent, boding well for additional supply.

Two Indonesian financial institutions, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and Adira Dinamika Multi Finance, are scheduled to hit the loan market in July.

State Bank of India, which wrapped up a $500m syndication with 21 lenders this week, is already eyeing a new borrowing of about the same size, said bankers.

A $500m three year borrowing for State Bank of India has been allotted among 21 lenders, eight of which joined during general syndication.

Westpac enjoyed a strong covered comeback for a two part euro offering on Thursday and, despite concerns about the performance outlook for non-eurozone bonds, the transactions were priced with barely any concession.

Bumi Serpong Damai and ICBC Sydney jumped into the debt market on Tuesday, capitalising on the positive market sentiment following the French presidential election.

Bank of China hit Asia's debt market hard on Tuesday, unleashing a huge deal spanning four currencies and six tranches. The $3.1bn-equivalent deal was designed to make a statement to the market that it should not forget China’s Belt and Road initiative, DCM bankers said. Morgan Davis and Addison Gong report.

Invitations are out for a $500m three year borrowing for State Bank of India, which has lined up 13 lenders to lead the deal with the money funded in March.

Bank of China launched its multi-currency, multi-tranche transaction on Tuesday morning, as Citic Securities also opened books for two tranches of dollar notes.

Bank of China, CCB Life Insurance and Citic Securities kicked off investor meetings and calls this week, in pursuit of Reg S deals.