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In a year marked by rapid swings in sentiment in both global and local currencies, one bank picked the right deals at the right time and still managed to introduce new issuers and unique structures to the market. For deftly negotiating difficult market conditions, HSBC is IFR Asia’s Bond House and Domestic Bond House of the Year.
DBS’s first US dollar-denominated Additional Tier 1 offering set a world record with the lowest coupon on any US dollar bank hybrid. Priced at the trough of the US rates cycle, that achievement looks likely to stand for some time. The US$750m perpetual non-call five securities priced on August 30 at 3.6%, comfortably besting the 4.25% record set earlier in the year by ICBC (Asia). To put that in context, HSBC and Societe Generale had AT1s callable in 2020 trading at 5.43% and 8.45% at the time. Asian investors were key to the Reg S deal’s...
The US$300m refinancing for the private equity owners of India’s Hexaware Technologies proved that the bond market can offer competitive financing through a holding company structure even for an emerging markets investment. The July 7 debut for HT Global IT Solutions Holding established a template for other private equity investors looking to optimise their Indian holdings, while offering high-yield fund managers some welcome exposure to a sector that rarely issues bonds on a standalone basis. Baring Private Equity Asia owns a 71% stake in...
As well as smashing records as the world’s largest Green bond, Bank of China’s US$3.03bn three-currency benchmark took on added significance as a sign of the potential for socially responsible financing in China. BOC’s Luxembourg branch sold a US$750m three-year floater at 100bp over three-month Libor, a US$500m three-year fixed tranche at 125bp over Treasuries, US$1bn five-year at 135bp over Treasuries and a €500m (US$557m) five-year at mid-swaps plus 95bp. At the same time, the New York branch priced a two-year Rmb1.5bn (US$225m) offshore...
Nirma’s Rs40bn (US$600m) rupee benchmark stood out in Asia’s local currency markets in 2016 as a watershed moment in Indian acquisition financing. The household products group turned to the bond market to finance the US$1.4bn acquisition of the Indian unit of Swiss cement company LafargeHolcim, and in the process opened a new avenue for high-rated companies to fund major acquisitions. Nirma’s four-tranche deal was the largest acquisition-related bond in the Indian market, and a landmark in the central bank’s drive to wean corporate borrowers...
In a tough environment, with margins falling and deal flow stubbornly slow, one bank stood out for its leadership in event-driven financings. For its broad roster of deals and wide distribution in volatile conditions, HSBC is IFR Asia’s Loan House and Hong Kong Loan House of the Year.
Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings capped a busy year in the loan markets with a US$3.5bn financing for its purchase of Finnish mobile gaming firm Supercell, completing the deal smoothly and in remarkably short order. Hong Kong-listed Tencent announced the US$8.6bn purchase of a stake of up to 84.3% in “Clash of Clans” maker Supercell in mid-June – only days before Britain voted to exit the EU – and wrapped up the syndicated financing in October, just four months later. Tencent’s largest acquisition to date was also the world’s largest...
Asian equity offerings remained a tough sell in 2016, but one bank used its global relationships to full advantage, raising more for its clients than any of its peers. For its consistent leadership in difficult markets, Morgan Stanley is IFR’s Asia Pacific Equity House of the Year.
Despite timing its float around the US presidential elections, having virtually no comparables, and coming after some high-profile local stumbles, Samsung Biologics still came closer than any other Asian issuer to a textbook IPO. The W2.2trn (US$2bn) Korea Exchange IPO priced at the top of the indicative range after covering the institutional book multiple times over. It attracted a broad base of investors, and also traded well – no small feat given that Donald Trump’s shock election victory came after pricing and before the shares started...
As one of the most profitable investments in corporate history, any disposal of SoftBank’s Alibaba stake was always going to need careful structuring. It took joint bookrunners Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley months to prepare for the US$10bn sell-down, split between a US$3.4bn block trade and a US$6.6bn mandatory exchangeable convertible issue, Asia’s largest and the second-biggest equity-linked deal in the US. Instead of pressuring the market with a giant block trade, the mandatory exchangeable trust securities allowed SoftBank to sell...
The high-yield bond rally for much of the year did not make Asian debt restructurings any easier, and Winsway Enterprises Holdings, since renamed E-Commodities Holdings, was the only one to complete a successful bond workout within the awards period. Winsway, a coal supply business suffering from low commodity prices, needed to deal with US$309.31m of 8.5% offshore bonds maturing in June 2016. It had previously tendered for its dollar bonds at a discount in 2013, but the 2016 exercise was a long-term solution rather than a stop-gap. With coal...
Australian consumer-finance specialist FlexiGroup printed a landmark securitisation in April that proved investors are willing to pay a premium for exposure to environmentally responsible assets. The A$260m (US$199m) Flexi ABS Trust 2016-1 was the world’s first Green ABS to be certified under the Climate Bonds Initiative’s global standard. It was also Australia’s first securitisation to include a Green tranche, with A$50m of A2G notes backed with loans for residential rooftop solar power systems. Crucially, that tranche, which benefited from...
Malaysian construction group Ekovest won over investors in 2016 with a M$3.64bn (US$818m) project financing that featured a new sharia-compliant structure and set a record for the largest ringgit bond for a greenfield toll road project. Lebuhraya Duke Fasa 3 raised the funds in August to help fund the construction of a 32.1km elevated expressway that will complete a critical ring road around the capital city. AmInvestment Bank, acting as financial and principal adviser, proposed a Wakalah Bi al-Istithmar structure, combining the Wakalah,...
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s latest visit to the baht bond market was also its most complex, requiring a combination of determination and diplomacy to overcome regulatory hurdles. The Bt11bn (US$309m) five-tranche issue, launched hours ahead of the US election on November 8, allowed Laos to retain access to a vital source of funding despite a rule change that threatened to block it from using the proceeds at home. With no developed domestic capital market and an economy too small to justify a US dollar fundraising, Laos had turned...