Reg S: Australia’s Royal Commission reveals some shady practices

Few banks around the world can claim such consistent domestic dominance as ANZ, which once again topped the bond league tables on both sides of the Tasman Sea amid a slowdown of overall Antipodean supply after a record-breaking 2017. “The key development in 2018 has been the rates cycle. This has impacted on foreign demand, notably out of Japan, and made the long end particularly challenging, though it has been contained by an expanding Australian investor base,” said ANZ’s global head of syndication, Paul White. ANZ responded well to the...

IFR Asia Awards 2018 The end of 2018 may not feel like much cause for celebration in Asia’s capital markets, but it would be a mistake to overlook the tremendous achievements of the past 12 months. After a slump in emerging-market currencies took hold over the summer, many market participants were left waiting for the end of the year to reset expectations. Investors who did well at the start of 2018 soon found themselves reeling, as higher dollar rates and fears for trade growth brought their portfolio values back to earth with a bump....

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group has transformed its institutional business into a leaner, sharper and more agile offering. While much of the focus in recent years has been on scaling back its retail and wealth management units in Asia and selling off joint ventures, the bank’s wholesale offering ended 2018 stronger, more focussed and – importantly – more profitable. By better leveraging its network and honing its attention on a target group of industry champions, ANZ won repeat business from regular issuers and picked up a number of first...

UBS used its strong local franchise and full-service equities offering to full effect in 2018, raising more for its Australian clients than any of its peers. UBS topped the Australia/New Zealand equity and equity-linked league table for IFR’s review period. The Swiss bank raised a total of A$8.38bn (US$6.08bn) for its clients through 30 transactions with a market share of more than 25%, way ahead of 14% for its closest competitor, according to Refinitiv data. “In terms of the quality of the issues we have done as well as the sizes, there are no...

China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) pushed the boundaries of the international capital markets in March with Asia’s biggest Reg S-only bond, raising US$6.4bn across six tranches – five in US dollars and a €1.2bn long four-year in euros. The first jumbo trade from Asia since markets weakened in February equalled Sinopec’s US$6.4bn-equivalent US dollar and euro 2015 deal as the biggest from China’s corporate sector and the largest international bond from a Chinese state-owned enterprise. Proceeds were used to refinance bridge loans used to...

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Australia and New Zealand Banking Group outperformed competitors in its home market in 2018 with leading roles in the biggest leveraged buyouts and infrastructure financings of the year. The bank topped the league table with more than 50 syndicated deals in Australia and New Zealand during IFR’s review period, underwriting over A$17bn (US$12.3bn). “Event-driven financing activity is a key focus for ANZ and our ability to leverage our long standing client relationships across both issuers and investors meant we could deliver large-scale timely...

Nagacorp’s US$300m debut bond introduced the first Cambodian issuer to the international markets and was arguably one of the most difficult deals executed in Asia in 2018. Nagacorp, which operates the only integrated casino and hotel resort in Phnom Penh, had to negotiate a rocky period for emerging markets in May and set a price for Cambodian risk, given that even the sovereign had yet to set an offshore benchmark. The deal, however, priced inside guidance and traded well, giving the company a valuable funding platform for future projects...