Judging by the volumes in the year ended mid-November 2006, it would be fair to say that Hong Kong's loan markets were on fire. Hong Kong topped the regional (ex-Japan, ex-Australia) tables with volumes of US$33.12bn from 90 deals - a 51% increase over the US$21.88bn registered in the corresponding period in 2005. Few bankers would have imagined such numbers when budgets for 2006 were being proposed in late 2005. But despite the record volumes, Hong Kong's loan markets continue to be uninspiring

Thai Beverage’s road to IPO began in 2003. The beer and spirits giant mandated Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Phatra Securities and SCB Securities to list it on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. That initiative got sidetracked by lacklustre markets when the SET Index sunk 15% in 2004. The deal got revived in 2005 and in October that year the issuer got as far as filing the IPO with local regulators. Alas, the deal would once again get sidetracked, this time by protests from religious gro

The US$333m GDS offering from ProMOS was not the largest equity raising in the country during the awards period, nor was it even the largest Taiwan GDR offering in the Dram space, but the way the deal was brought back from disaster during difficult times in the market has great merit. When bookrunners ABN AMRO Rothschild and JPMorgan launched ProMOS’s offering on June 8, the global markets had already started showing signs of nervousness. But the fact that ProMOS’s share price held firm and many

Loan volumes in Taiwan in the 12-month period ended mid-November reached an impressive US$27.14bn, making Taiwan the second-largest market in Asia (ex-Japan, ex-Australia). Unlike elsewhere in the region, the market was dominated by local houses with only five foreign banks figuring among the top 25 in the league tables. Chinatrust was clearly the dominant player, demonstrating intensive industry knowledge, solid structuring and distribution expertise and strong client relationships. In the revi

The NT$26.1bn (US$800m) ABCP issuance from Taishin International Bank, which priced in February 2006, was one of those deals that provided an enormous benefit for all those touched by it. Taishin and its arrangers (Lehman Brothers and Taishin Securities) made decent money from the trade, investors got a pick-up to other potential investments and some added diversity, bond funds got to sell off some of their out-of-the-money holdings without taking too big a hit and Chinatrust Financial was able

Goldman Sach’s banner transaction in South Korea in 2006 – indeed, the banner transaction for the whole of Korean ECM – was Lotte Shopping’s eye-popping W3.43trn (US$3.58bn) IPO, the largest Korean equity offering in history. “It was a monster deal,” David Ryan, co-head of Goldman Sach’s Asia financing group said. “The fact that a Korean listing could raise so much impressed a great many people.” Lotte Shopping did not just impress on size. In a year of mixed sentiment and momentum Goldman and f

Critics would say Korea Development Bank’s close links and long association with many of the borrowers in South Korea ensures many of its lead arranging roles in the country. They would also say that, being a government-owned bank makes for a tilted playing field, effectively guaranteeing KDB’s dominance and leadership in the market. But in 2006 the bank’s success had just as much to do with aggressive marketing and a proactive approach to securing deals – certainly there was no complacency. “Th

JPMorgan on October 5 priced a S$350m (US$220.9m) CB for CapitaLand, the Temasek-controlled Singapore property developer. At 10 years, the deal had the longest tenor of any convertible from Asia (ex-Japan) and, at 42.8%, the highest conversion premium of any CB issued by a real estate company from the region. It was a great deal for the company. But while investors bought a transparently expensive deal, they did so confident that they were buying paper from an excellent issuer and one whose prev

It’s nothing new for those tasked with picking award winners to complain about the difficulty of distinguishing between the various contenders. But it would be close to impossible to consider this year’s Singapore Bond House without resorting to this particular cliché one more time. Although Citigroup has scooped the title for the third year on the trot, it was only marginally ahead of some stiff competition. A relatively uneventful year in the city state’s local currency markets combined with a

There is no doubt that Standard Chartered was one of the more aggressive banks operating in Singapore in 2006, but its ability to successfully syndicate transactions despite that competitive mindset made it stand out. The bank ended up third in Thomson Financial’s bookrunner league tables for Singapore loans in the period from mid-November 2005 to mid-November 2006. It grabbed an 8.8% market share having lead arranged 12 loans totalling US$1.55bn. Through successful selldowns of some difficult l

Bankers working in local currency bond markets have become adept at claiming firsts for their deals. It often seems like it can only be a matter of time before men in pinstripes start making boasts along the lines of “it was the first domestic transaction from a medium-sized corporate . . . to price on a Tuesday afternoon in July when the wind was blowing from the North West”. That’s why it’s particularly refreshing to see a genuine landmark local currency deal such as July’s non-call five perpe

The Merrill Lynch-led Berau Coal US$279m acquisition funding was steeped in innovation. It was a layered, dual-tranche funding that needed to address investors’ many concerns about investing in an unlisted, largely unknown, Indonesian entity. But even that was not the most notable aspect of the transaction. What really impressed was simply that the deal got done at all. With rival consortiums competing for the same assets, and with all the complications and risk associated with doing business in

In the 12-month period ended November 15 2006 equity market volumes from India clocked up a record US$15.2bn a near 26% rise over the US$12.1bn volumes in the corresponding period in 2005. Nearly half of the issuance came from ADR/GDRs and CBs with follow-ons accounting for a big chunk of domestic issuance. CB issuance totalled US$4.98bn – almost a third of total primary equity – and largely took place in the period up to mid-May 2006. After that, equity markets experienced a sell-off and deal f

In the 12-month period ended mid-November 2006, loan volumes skyrocketed to US$20.32bn from 104 deals – almost 70% higher than the US$11.99bn in the same period in 2005 and up 40.42% over the US$14.47bn clocked for the whole of 2005. Nearly the entire amount borrowed came from foreign currency loans. On the back of a strong finish in the previous review period that included the €165m (US$219m) acquisition financing for Matrix Laboratories, ABN kicked off its deal flow with a joint-lead role, alo

Led jointly by AK Capital, Centrum Capital and Darashaw & Co, UCO Bank’s Rs1.5bn (US$33.5m) perpetual bond was the first deal to take advantage of regulations announced on January 25 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowing Indian entities to issue perpetual securities. The deal’s successful placement with 26 investors provided the template for other bigger-sized deals by state-run and private banks which followed much later. “The motivation for issuing such innovative instruments was to stre

In terms of league table status, Citigroup far outpaced its competitors in 2006, with the bank following a combative strategy in Hong Kong ECM that saw it battle it out with the rest of the market for the block-sale business. That strategy could have been a double-edged sword for Citi. It certainly had its critics. On one hand, Citi’s aggression pushed it to the top of the Hong Kong equity/equity-linked league tables by raising US$2.14bn through the completion of six transactions, with the bank

Judging by the volumes in the year ended mid-November 2006, it would be fair to say that Hong Kong’s loan markets were on fire. Hong Kong topped the regional (ex-Japan, ex-Australia) tables with volumes of US$33.12bn from 90 deals – a 51% increase over the US$21.88bn registered in the corresponding period in 2005. Few bankers would have imagined such numbers when budgets for 2006 were being proposed in late 2005. But despite the record volumes, Hong Kong’s loan markets continue to be uninspiring

The landmark deal of 2006 from an ECM perspective was undoubtedly the IPO of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), at US$21.9bn the world’s largest listing. The deal’s H-share tranche featured five bookrunners but it is perhaps telling that Credit Suisse, one of the less celebrated names of China ECM, was the only foreign bank to be on that deal and on the largest transaction of 2005, the US$9.2bn IPO of China Construction Bank (CCB). That fact proved Credit Suisse’s consistency in

Volumes in China’s loan markets for the 12-month review period ending mid-November 2006 were – at US$11.80bn – nearly 85% higher than the year before. HSBC claimed nearly 12% of that business with league table credit of US$1.39bn to claim top spot in the tables. While that was just US$72m ahead of nearest rival DBS Bank, it is a huge jump from the US$150.2m in credit that gave it a number 11 rank in the same period in 2005. The highlight of HSBC’s strong performance was its sole mandate on the U

Chinese banks are under pressure from regulators to bolster capital and reduce bad loans as the industry prepares for increased foreign competition starting in 2007. Securitisation is one way of addressing these twin problems and the successful closure of CCB’s Rmb3.017bn (US$372m) RMBS transaction, Jian Yuan 2005-1, proved that China’s domestic bond market can accommodate this asset class. The deal has created a model for future transactions. “As many of China’s smaller commercial banks have po