Advising the wise Source: REUTERS/Jon Woo Customers flock to buy gold accessories at a gold store in Taiyuan, Shanxi province. The transformation of Asia’s capital markets since the 2008 credit crisis has coincided with some serious upheavals in the banking sector. Western advisers have retreated, due to a regulatory backlash, while Asian competitors have grown, and competition among bankers is as intense as ever. In this evolving environment, however, banks have had to rethink the way they cove

Taking charge Source: REUTERS/Tyrone Siu The latest version of “My Car”, an electric car made by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, is recharged in Hong Kong. China Hongqiao Group sought the advice of investment banks three year ago for its Hong Kong IPO of US$2.2bn, but, since turning to the loan markets for funding, it has discovered that commercial banks offer competitive pricing and more efficient execution. Hongqiao’s experience offers insights into how China’s big companies assess their

Global scale Source: REUTERS/Issei Kato Competitors move beads on Japanese traditional calculating tools called the soroban (abacus) during a soroban competition in English, in Tokyo. Asian companies are selling bonds without credit ratings in greater numbers of late in a bid to shave transaction costs and gain greater flexibility in timing their offerings. Yet, credit ratings are not disappearing from Asia’s capital markets. Investors may want to do their own analyses, but many are required to

Making the grade Source: REUTERS/Bobby Yip Jockey Douglas Whyte (C) riding Ambitious Dragon celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the 2,000-metre Audemars Piguet QEII Cup Group One race at Shatin racetrack in Hong Kong. The flight of international investors out of emerging markets last spring seems like a distant memory in Asia, having seen a strong return of funds to the region this year. Investors fled thinking rates in the US would rise, providing higher-yielding securities in the U

Paradigm shift Source: REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco Ramiro Hinojas, 47, a traffic enforcer, wears a Santa Claus costume as he directs traffic along a main street in Pasay city, metro Manila. As Asia’s capital markets grow and develop, its blue-chip companies are leading the way with jumbo-sized transactions and innovative offerings that are drawing more investors to the region. Asia may only recently have recovered from the dual setbacks of the global financial crisis and the Asian financial crisis of t

Banking Asia’s Blue-Chips- Raising the bar Source: REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom Participants in a rocket competition cheer after their rocket was successfully launched during the rocket festival also known as “Bun Bangfai” in Yasothon, north-east of Bangkok. Asia’s blue-chip companies have always demanded a lot of their bankers. In recent years, however, those demands have begun to shift. Far beyond insisting on the thinnest pricing for their latest fully underwritten bank loans, many firms increas

Independents’ day Source: REUTERS He Yide sits in a glider before flying a plane in Guan county, Hebei province. He, 5, piloted a plane, accompanied by his coach. The flight from Guan county to Beijing Wildlife Park at 150m high took around 35 minutes and landed successfully. International boutique investment banks are finding Asia’s leading companies more receptive to their pure advisory business models than ever before, yet demand from the region’s nascent capital markets continues to fall sho

Spinning off Source: REUTERS People ride on a chair-o-plane at a park on May Day holiday in Hefei, Anhui province. Asia’s blue-chip companies have discovered one of the best ways to unlock value from assets and make their shareholders happy is to spin them off into a separate unit. The growing number of investors focused on Asia has largely snapped up the offerings. “A new set of institutional investors wants to have a piece of the Asian growth story and spinoffs allow them to invest in well-kno