Four years ago almost to the day, Asia emerged from its SARS-epidemic scare. While this disease whipped through Hong Kong, China and South-East Asia, banking activity was at a halt. No one was flying, there was no marketing or pitch meetings, there were no mandates up for grabs. Trading levels and turnover were in the gutter. The only real bit of ECM activity during that time was a S$684m (US$447m) IPO for SingPost, which priced in May 2003. Joint lead managers DBS and UBS marketed the deal via a “virtual roadshow” that made great use of the...Read more
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An increasingly favourable regulatory environment, coupled with rising institutional and retail demand for hedging products, is creating big opportunities for equity derivatives providers across Asia. But sizeable challenges remain, including putting the right resources in place and educating investors.
There’s always a relationship aspect to banking. Traditionally this has been less evident in CB markets, where pricing is transparent and brutally efficient. And yet, relationships have routinely come up as an explanation for a series of over-priced deals that have come to market this year.
The Australian hybrid market is poised for a shift towards equity-linked structures that offer faster deal execution and larger deal sizes. Given the recent squeeze on hybrid yields, the inclusion of an equity kicker could be instrumental in generating demand. But with an explosion of LBO activity to be refinanced, it is too soon to assert the demise of conventional hybrids.
Taiwan was once a prime hunting ground for the equity-linked pros at international investment banks. But no longer. The market has become the preserve of local securities houses taking advantage of good domestic market conditions to sell aggressively structured CBs for domestic issuers.
Despite predictions that Indian equity issuers would increasingly favour domestic issuance over offshore deals, depositary receipt transactions have refused to go away. Indian issuers remain drawn to the liquidity and valuations that offshore markets offer. And there are few signs of that changing.