Japan

Citigroup could issue its first yen bonds in over two years this week, after mandating banks for a five year issue in global format.

Barclays beat a hasty retreat this week from the bulk of its investment banking operations in Asia, shuttering offices in multiple countries and slashing hundreds of jobs amid a wider global cull in costs and personnel. It did not pull any punches, with the cuts stretching across the equities, loans and bonds products. John Loh reports.

Barclays is pulling out of the cash equities business in Asia Pacific as the bank stages a total exit from a number of countries in the region including Taiwan and Korea.

Six Japanese lenders have arranged a $1.2bn loan for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) as part of a $3.3bn loan arranged by Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to ensure oil supplies for Japanese companies.

Medical equipment maker Nipro launched on Wednesday the first of this year’s Japanese convertibles sold outside Japan, and found keen demand, with a seven times oversubscription.

The first Aluminium Japan Premium Futures contracts traded on Friday, CME Group has said.

Traders in yen futures may have overreacted to the growth concerns in China, data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has suggested.

Latin American development bank CAF (Corporación Andina de Fomento) sold its first ever bond marketed as an SRI deal on Tuesday with a “Water Bond” issued in Uridashi format and denominated in Turkish Lira and South African Rand.

Three years in and Abenomics is still struggling to bring about the rebalancing of the Japanese economy pledged by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Corporate cash hoarding, a stagnation in wages and the fallout from quantitative easing means Japan’s biggest challenges could be just around the corner, reports Peter McGill.

Santander UK has beaten a path that could become well trodden by European banks in the next two years, printing a holdco senior unsecured deal in the Tokyo Pro-Bond market as it looks to broaden its investor base for issuing loss absorbing debt.

Santander UK has beaten a path that could be well trodden by European banks in the next two years, printing a holdco senior unsecured deal in the Tokyo Pro-Bond market as it looks to broaden its investor base for issuing loss absorbing debt.

Banks can look forward to regularly pricing green bonds inside their vanilla senior curves, some FIG bankers believe, after BPCE launched the latest in a succession of tight trades on Wednesday.