IFR Special Reports | IFR

Outlook for Asian Financing: Grinding it out

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 hard year, as arrangers and investors struggle to...Read more

To purchase printed copies or a PDF of this report, please email leonie.welss@lseg.com and shahid.hamid@lseg.com

Stories in Special Report

Over a barrel

Asian energy credits have suffered less than those in other emerging markets, but some are still finding it tough to cope with a continuing slump in oil and commodities prices.

Living in hope

Just as Chinese internet finance companies are gearing up for a capital-raising binge, a vast fraud in the poorly regulated sector has cast a shadow on rosy valuations.

Painful progress

After breakthroughs in Singapore and South Korea, the rest of Asia is well behind with the introduction of covered bonds. The pace of progress, however, is likely to remain slow.

Bouncing higher

A repeat of Apple’s 2015 blockbuster may be unlikely, but the Australian credit market can accommodate many more international issuers at more modest sizes.

Red alert

Investors are starting to pay greater attention to individual credit quality among Chinese SOEs as the pressure for reform dispels earlier expectations of unconditional state support.

Sailing on

India’s ECM momentum looks set to resume after a slow start to the year thanks to a combination of robust economic growth, structural reforms and government sell-downs.

Good intentions

China is gearing up to introduce a registration-based IPO system, but doubts remain over the regulators’ ability to relinquish control. At least initially, the market-oriented regime will be heavily supervised.

Piping hot yields

The offshore renminbi liquidity crunch hit the Dim Sum market hard at the start of the year, but an attractive carry-trade opportunity should rekindle the interest of onshore buyers once capital controls are eased.