IFR Asia 302 – April 19, 2003 Sars attacks Banks in Asia have been making their adjustments to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak, sometimes grudgingly, sometimes with humour but all with a growing sense that Sars has to somehow be worked into normal life. HSBC, for example, has worked through six infections, one quarantine and has split its dealing room at its main Hong Kong headquarters onto two floors. While there is a tendency in banking circles to make cracks about the di

Securitisation played a part in Asia’s recovery, too, helping banks and governments recycle balance sheets and offload risk. Structured financing survived test after test in the region, from the Asian financial crisis to consumer credit blowups, before the US subprime disaster finally put paid to any mainstream ambitions. South Korea’s first asset-backed deal since the crisis, priced at the end of 1998, was a turning point in bringing investors back to Asia’s emerging markets. The Export-Import

Twenty years ago Asia’s top international debt underwriters were all global names, with little competition from regional players, and names like Peregrine and Barings still featured on the region’s equity charts. Investment banking in Asia in 2017 looks very different. The Asian financial crisis, dotcom bust and global credit crisis have put paid to many firms’ ambitions, while the region’s own growth has seen local players displace their global rivals. US underwriters accounted for 65% of all b

IFR Asia 598 – May 9, 2009 Blowout Kookmin tightens 75bp at debut Kookmin Bank last Wednesday priced Asia’s first covered bond, a blowout deal that both established the asset class in the region and underscored the returning vigour of Asian G3. Still, the screaming in of the bond’s spread the following day in Asia prompted a chorus of criticisms from rivals that the deal – led by Citigroup and HSBC – was priced far too generously. The US$1bn five-year deal carried a 7.25% coupon and priced at 98

Japan’s track record of successful partnerships between domestic and international financial institutions is not a long one. Merrill Lynch’s takeover of the stricken Yamaichi Securities in 1998 failed to give the US bank a firm footing in the country’s retail banking business. Citigroup also had a stop-start relationship with Nikko Cordial Securities, before it was forced to sell in 2009. So when Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group wrote a US$9bn check to rescue Morgan Stanley and announced a “strate

Farhan Faruqui remembers the weekend of the Citigroup bailout well. He was late for dinner. It was 7.30pm on November 21 2008, a Friday, and Faruqui was in his office when the phone rang. It was his wife, wanting to know where he was, as they had friends due to arrive for dinner any minute. “I didn’t want to leave the office,” said Faruqui, who was running Citigroup’s corporate and commercial bank for Asia Pacific at the time. “There were a few of us there and we were all in the same position. I

IFR Asia 534 – January 12, 2008 Views sharpen on controversy-laden Reliance Power float Anil Ambani’s mega issue for Reliance Power, slated to raise up to Rs117bn (US$2.9bn), has been one of the most drama-filled offerings in recent history. After months of controversy the IPO – which was expected to take place in December but dragged on due to issues with minority shareholders and the regulators – is set to launch bookbuilding on January 15. The early signs are that the deal will be hot. Grey m

India’s JM Financial ended its nine-year joint venture with Morgan Stanley in 2007, dissolving the last of the JVs with the bulge-bracket investment banks and ushering in a new chapter for the local market. Started in 1973, JM Financial was already a prominent player in the local investment banking world when it teamed up with Morgan Stanley in 1999. India’s securities industry, however, was in its infancy: the Sensex was at 4,000 – compared to 31,000 today – and the first IPO to be priced throu

IFR Asia 500 – May 5, 2007 Krishnan plans M$16bn Maxis buyout In the same week that the MMC-Malakoff LBO deal was completed, Malaysia’s second-richest man Ananda Krishnan announced plans to take private the company he founded, Maxis Communications in a M$16bn (US$4.7bn) transaction that will be the biggest leveraged finance deal in Asia ex-Japan and Australia. Maxis’ shares were suspended on April 30 following notification that Usaha Tegas, a company wholly owned by Krishnan through a special pu

Tata Steel’s acquisition of European steel maker Corus was a defining moment for the Asian syndicated loan market. The massive US$13bn term loan proved that Asian borrowers could access enormous amounts of money without the US market, raising the bar for outbound M&A. But it wasn’t supposed to be that way. When Tata Steel began pursuing Corus in late 2006, ABN AMRO, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank put together a leveraged financing that was to be split between senior debt and a subordinated,

IFR Asia 436 – January 14, 2006 Indian government makes history with Maruti divestment The Indian government is an unlikely catalyst of equity market innovation, but India last week saw a selldown of a secondary stake in car-maker Maruti Udyog via a unique transaction that was dictated by the conflicting ideologies within the ruling coalition. The sale of an 8% stake in Maruti raised Rs15.67bn (US$356m) through an auction structured in a way that that has never been seen before in Asia. Equity s

The Philippines’ equity capital markets have minted several new billionaires over the past decade or so, but it was the modest listing of a lowly public utility in 2005 that started the flow. The Ps5.1bn (US$94m) float of Manila Water in February 2005 was the country’s first major IPO since the Asian financial crisis. The stock jumped 16.9% and closed 6% higher on its first day of trading, helping build confidence for the far bigger float of Henry Sy’s SM Investments two weeks later. “It was a v

IFR Asia 389 – January 29, 2005 Lenovo loan launched despite uncertain acquisition Lenovo Group’s US$600m five-year dual-tranche loan was launched simultaneously into sub-underwriting and general syndication last week amid concerns in some quarters that the company’s US$1.75bn acquisition of IBM’s PC business could run into rough weather. The proceeds will take out the US$500m bridge financing provided to Lenovo by Goldman Sachs for the acquisition. While Lenovo’s shareholders approved the acqui

IFR Asia 383 – December 4, 2004 CAO scandal puts due diligence in focus The subject of how much due diligence is enough was back in the spotlight last week after Singapore-listed China Aviation Oil (Singapore) (CAO) announced that it had sought protection from creditors. The company, an oil procurement operation that supplies most of China’s jet fuel, had racked up US$550m in losses betting on a drop in oil prices through the derivatives market. The losses – the biggest in Singapore since Nick L

Hutchison Whampoa’s US$5bn three-tranche bond issue, launched in November 2003, stands out as a key moment in the development of the Asian bond market. The deal remained Asia’s largest dollar bond offering for more than a decade, until Sinopec matched the size in 2014 and Hutch beat its own record later that year. “It was the first time an Asian issuer had done a deal that stood shoulder to shoulder with the top European and US issuers in terms of size,” said Stephen Williams, head of global ban

Asia’s debt restructuring scene has been one of the most colourful sectors of the financial markets in the past 20 years. In IFR Asia’s early days, one South-East Asian issuer was known to open creditor meetings by placing a loaded pistol on the table. On another occasion, a bus deposited a bunch of stick-wielding thugs outside a company building where discussions were taking place, and some foreign creditors were forced to climb a barbed-wire fence to get away. One investor remembers being thre

IFR Asia 262 – June 22, 2002 Maxis prices Asia Pacific’s largest IPO this year Maxis Communications priced a 652.3m share IPO at M$4.85 per share, the middle of the M$4.40-M$5.33 indicative pricing range, to raise M$3.05bn. The transaction was Malaysia’s biggest IPO since that of Tenaga Nasional in 1992 and Asia-Pacific’s largest IPO in the year to date. ABN AMRO Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and ING were the bookrunners for the international tranche. CIMB and RHB Sakura ran the domestic tranche. Of

Good news has outweighed bad in Australia for far longer than IFR Asia has been around, with the country now recession-free for almost 26 years straight. The combination of a natural resources boom, a banking oligopoly and – perhaps most importantly ¬– the effect of a desirable climate on house prices has contributed to strong and stable growth. The Aussie capital markets have played their part in this golden era, too, weathering global crises that brought many other economies to their knees. Bu

Japan’s asset-backed market was the source of intense competition in the early 2000s, to the extent that issuers sometimes found it hard to choose between rival arrangers. Government Housing Loan Corp, the Japanese equivalent of Fannie Mae in the US, took the contest to an extreme when it was preparing its first issue of residential mortgage-backed securities – a trophy mandate for any aspiring bank. “We bid a ridiculously low fee to get on the deal, but we ended up level with another house,” sa

IFR Asia 203 – April 14, 2001 APP fails to win confidence Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) last week met with its creditors in an effort to gain support for its debt standstill, but with the company revealing it had greater than previously reported debt and its officials sidestepping difficult questions, creditors remain unsympathetic. Though they are suspicious of APP and its controlling shareholders, the Widyaya family, most creditors appear wary of taking the company into receivership. However, a gr