Tentative signs of renminbi stability immediately after the Lunar New Year have breathed much needed life into the beleaguered Dim Sum bond market, however conditions still are not ripe for a sustained resumption of new deals. Syndicate bankers in Hong Kong say the shrunken Dim Sum market is now almost entirely the preserve of Chinese banks eager to foster the offshore currency business, while corporate issuers have switched to onshore funding. All is not lost, however. Bankers expect the market

After years of preparations and setbacks, China is finally set to introduce a registration-based IPO system, possibly as early as this March, replacing the approval-based model in place since 2004. The reform, one of the most important the country’s capital markets have seen in a decade, is designed to facilitate access to capital and to allow market forces, rather than regulators, to determine which companies should go public and at what valuation. Bankers reckon that, in the long run, the new

Indian equities have had a rough start to the year in line with other global stock markets, fraying investor nerves after an upbeat 2015, but fundamentals still point to another strong performance over the next few months. India’s ECM clocked its highest deal volume since 2010 last year, at US$20bn, and early estimates indicate that transactions totalling US$15bn–$20bn may get done this year, thanks to continued economic reforms and consumer-led growth. “The volatility in January has unnerved th

China’s state-owned enterprises will be facing more scrutiny from credit investors in the international bond markets as buyers challenge the idea that these firms enjoy blanket support from the PRC government. State support for certain SOEs is likely to diminish in the future, a concern that investors have been taking into account in their credit-selection process in recent years, particularly as China deleverages its economy by improving efficiency among debt-laden public firms. The gap between

The corporate Kangaroo market is expected to maintain its recent steady progress in 2016, although no one foresees any repeat of last August’s stunning Apple debut. Apple raised Australia’s global profile and cheered local DCM desks with a A$2.25bn (US$1.58bn) triple-tranche print, which, besides being the largest bond sale from any overseas issuer, smashed BHP Billiton’s local corporate bond record of A$1bn. The deal raised hopes that Australia’s underutilised bond market would be viewed as a k

After making significant inroads last year, Asia’s nascent covered bond market is going nowhere fast. The optimism and excitement at the growth potential for this market in Asia at the start of 2015 has been replaced with a more realistic expectation that any meaningful expansion of covered bonds outside of South Korea and Singapore will take years. Covered bonds have been popular for years in places like Germany, Denmark and Spain, as well as Australia and New Zealand, because they offer banks

The uncovering of a US$7.6bn fraud has rocked confidence in China’s fast-growing internet finance sector at a time when leading players are lining up to tap the public markets to fund their expansion plans. On February 1, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that Ezubo, a peer-to-peer lending company based in Anhui, had conned investors out of more than Rmb50bn through a Ponzi scheme. According to Xinhua, nearly 95% of investment projects listed on Ezubo did not exist. Founded in July 2014, Ezu

The sustained drop in energy prices has had less of an impact on Asia than on other regions, but it has put some corners of the bond market under intense pressure. Some commodities producers have been shut out of the market, while large declines in some bond prices have created opportunities for bold investors. On January 22, Moody’s put a dozen oil-and-gas companies in Asia Pacific on review for possible downgrades, as part of a global action on the sector after it revised its estimate for the

The outlook for Asia’s capital markets has changed dramatically in the first six weeks of 2016 – and not for the better. Most outlooks conceived before the end of last year had been torn up by the middle of January, written off as overly optimistic projections after a rout in commodity prices and global equity markets savaged global confidence. The pages of this report will hopefully be spared a similar fate. With the benefit of time, it is now clear that Asia’s financing markets are in for a ha