Japan

ANZ has made some changes to its infrastructure financing team in Asia, relocating Gareth Coleman to Singapore from Cambodia.

Mizuho issued five year and 10 year senior bonds this week, fixing spreads for the two instruments at 65bp and 67bp, respectively.

The dual currency $303m-equivalent loan, which marks Africa Export-Import Bank's (Afreximbank) second entry into the market, is the largest ever Samurai loan raised by an African issuer.

Rare international bond issuer Export-Import Bank of India turned to Japan this week for a yen-denominated deal. The ¥32bn ($301.2m) trade was its first standalone Samurai bond since 2006.

In this round-up, the US gave Huawei another three months to buy supplies from US companies, the Chinese government revealed plans to turn Shenzhen into ‘a demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics’ and Japan replaced China as the largest holder of US treasuries

JP Morgan has hired veteran banker Yuka Uehara to its Japan equity capital markets team, and brought on Jinsoo Ha to lead ECM in South Korea, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

The Republic of the Philippines took advantage of Japanese investors’ hunger for yield with a tightly priced four-tranche ¥92bn ($863.4m) Samurai bond.

Nomura’s wholesale business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa underperformed other regions in the last quarter, with the results coming out after the bank announced it is to scale back trading operations there. But the wholesale division registered a profit overall — a rare occurrence of late.

UBS and Citi trader Tom Hayes was jailed for 11 years for manipulating Libor. But while the trader argued that he was made a scapegoat for the financial crisis, perhaps the rate he rigged is a bigger victim.

Banks in Japan might not be able to copy the structure of SMBC’s debut covered bond, resulting in a lack of uniformity in the market that may cause concern among investors. This stands in contrast to Korea, where banks are now exploring issuing in Korean won as there is a law in place that supports these instruments.

As the market prepares for Libors to end their run as the world’s most prevalent reference rates, there is growing support for the benchmarks to be reprieved.

Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations has returned to the Samurai market with what the issuer and leads said was the lowest ever coupon in the format.