IFR Asia Awards 2019: Call for Entries

It's rather a good time to be issuing bonds in Asia. For all the talk of trade wars and political protests, it's clear that investors are still looking to put cash to work. Last week's crop of high-yield bonds included Chinese industrial names – an often overlooked segment – that have performed remarkably well this year. Chemicals company ENN Ecological returned for a tap of its 2021s at 5.65%, down from 8.35% when it priced the bonds in February. Bad debt manager China Orient found its latest dollar deal 10 times covered, and Thai banks are...

Are South-East Asian equities becoming a safe haven for global investors? Anyone around in 1997 will have trouble with that concept, but there is some merit to the argument. Equity buyers are searching for assets that are less exposed to Chinese politics and a slowing US economy. Property stocks and real estate trusts in Thailand and Singapore look to fit the bill, as do consumer plays in the Philippines. Singapore is now firmly established as Asia's REIT capital, and the rest of South-East Asia certainly offers some useful diversification....

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has reaffirmed its ambitions to acquire the London Stock Exchange Group, even though several LSE shareholders told IFR that any plans to appeal directly to them were likely to fall on deaf ears. HKEx said in a statement on September 13 that it was "disappointed" that LSE had declined to engage in discussions, shortly after the London bourse had issued a statement rejecting its audacious £31.6bn (US$37.7bn) bid in brutal language. The Hong Kong bourse said that a combination between the two exchanges remained...

China's banking system is not opaque. It's actually very transparent – you just need to be able, and willing, to read about 33,000 pages of financial disclosures in Chinese to get a clear picture of potential problems. That's the view of Jason Bedford, the former UBS analyst who has made a name for himself in recent months with some prescient calls on smaller Chinese banks that needed bailing out. Beford moved to Beijing in 2004 to take up a part-time job at the American Chamber of Commerce, which gave him the opportunity and time to learn...

Trading in renminbi levelled off during the past three years, according to the latest survey from the Bank for International Settlements, underscoring how Beijing's efforts to promote the RMB as an international currency have taken a back seat in recent years. According to BIS' data, average daily turnover in renminbi in April was US$284bn, an increase of 41% compared with April 2016 when the survey was last carried out. This increase was ahead of the figures for daily trading in FX globally, which rose 30% to US$6.59trn. However, RMB...

The People's Bank of China marginally cut its new one-year benchmark lending rate for the second month in a row on Friday, two days after the latest interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. The Chinese central bank's five-year benchmark rate was left unchanged, however, which some analysts said reflected policymakers' concerns that low rates for long tenors could reflate a property bubble and flood the system with excessive liquidity, much like after the 2008 financial crisis. “The PBoC is experimenting with this new system. They are...

The Bank for International Settlements has appointed Ravi Menon, the head of Singapore's central bank, as chair of its Asian consultative council. Menon, who has served as managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore since 2011, has been appointed to the role for two years as per the custom. He succeeds Veerathai Santiprabhob, governor of the Bank of Thailand. The ACC comprises the governors of BIS member central banks in Asia Pacific and acts as a touchpoint for BIS in the region.

Warburg Pincus-backed ARA Asset Management plans to return to the public markets in the next two to three years once its portfolio has grown to S$100bn (US$73bn), group CEO John Lim told IFR Asia. Real estate investor ARA, which also counts Li Ka-shing's CK Asset Holdings and Straits Trading among its shareholders, has assets under management of S$83bn, up from S$36bn when it delisted from the Singapore Exchange in 2017 to gain more flexibility to expand. While ARA is a well-known brand in Singapore, it needs a global footprint, Lim said....

Overseas investors shied away from the latest New Zealand Treasury syndicated bond offering, buying a relatively modest 47% of the new NZ$2bn (US$1.27bn) 1.5% May 15 2031s issued last Wednesday. Overall orders in excess of NZ$3bn were well below the NZ$5bn-plus book secured for the previous syndicated sale of NZ$2bn 3.0% April 2029s on March 13 2018, 58% of which was allotted to non-Australasian accounts. “We saw weaker demand from Asia and Europe than we have for previous syndicated transactions. This reflects relative value considerations and...

Budweiser Brewing Company APAC is hoping that its sharper focus on fast-growing Asian markets and a big cornerstone commitment will give investors confidence to buy into a trimmed-down Hong Kong IPO of up to HK$37.8bn (US$4.8bn) at the second attempt. The Asia Pacific unit of Anheuser-Busch InBev started bookbuilding last Wednesday for the world’s second-largest IPO this year after pulling a US$9.8bn deal in July. The company is marketing 1.26bn new shares, or 9.5% of its enlarged share capital, at an indicative price range of HK$27–$30 per...

Zhenjiang, one of China's most heavily indebted cities, has introduced a pilot scheme to encourage banks to refinance debt accumulated by local government financing vehicles, potentially setting an example for other regions. The municipal government's debt resolution committee has allowed banks to charge up to 120% of the benchmark lending rate for new LGFV loans with a tenor of at least five years. The Zhenjiang government has pledged to increase deposits with the banks that commit to the refinancings in proportion to their participation....

Everstone Group is looking to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars in a credit fund mostly focused on Indian real estate, taking advantage of tight domestic funding conditions. The India-headquartered private equity and property investor, which manages assets of US$4bn in India and South-East Asia, is the latest firm to see opportunities in one of India's distressed business sectors. “We are looking at setting up something in the credit space that will be a few hundred million dollars with a focus on real estate credit," said Sameer Sain, co...