KDB Daewoo Securities

Asian bond issuers have finally decided to venture back into the market with a trio of investment grade names opening books to dollar deals. Export-Import Bank of China (Chexim), Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Korea Development Bank are vying for attention in the first test of investor demand in three weeks.

The vast majority of payments from South Korea to China and Hong Kong are now processed in RMB, Swift said in its latest RMB Tracker report issued on September 1. A day earlier, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe) said it had added three new Seoul-based institutional investors to the RMB qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) programme in August, with 60% of the Rmb80bn ($12.4bn) country quota now distributed.

Korea Development Bank (KDB) is eyeing the dollar bond market for the second time this year, and has sent out a request for proposals to banks.

A pair of Korean policy banks have shown their savviness by opting for single tranche offshore renminbi trade bonds dual-listed as a dim sum and Formosa bond. Strong international credits should take this fairly new structure more seriously if they are looking for opportunities to save costs and secure new investor bases at the same time.

Two Formosa debuts from Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Citi have added to the flurry of issues in Taiwan's offshore renminbi bond market, taking volumes this year to Rmb28.2bn ($4.5bn), compared with Rmb20.8bn for the whole of 2014.