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The Asian syndicated loan market is making a comeback. But the return to pre-crisis volumes has not been matched by a return to pre-crisis profits. Joy Lee reports.

Pity the private banker. Regardless of the hassles of global volatility, Asian clients are more demanding than ever – and at a time of increasing competition and fee pressures. Pauline Loong talks to the people who want to make your money work harder.

At a Eurofinance cash and treasury management conference in Singapore earlier this year, Asiamoney brought together the Asia-Pacific treasurers of seven multinationals and asked them about banks, technology and the changing nature of their own jobs.

All eyes are on Cezar “Bong” Consing, JP Morgan's regional head of investment banking. Not least because the widely respected JP Morgan veteran of 15 years is said to have been given to understand that he would get the top investment banking job in the newly-merged JP Morgan Chase Asia. But reports say nobody discussed this with Chase Asia's vice chairman, Paul Beckwith, who came to Asia four months ago to head investment banking at the newly formed Chase JF. Now everything's up in the air. No one will comment on record, least of all Consing himself. “Bong is just taking the simple view that he is going to wait,” says a JP Morgan staffer. “If they insist on some sort of co-head thing or if they unwind his job, he will just walk out the door. There's not a single bulge-bracket investment bank that wouldn't want him; he has many places to go.”

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International yen bonds are back in the mainstream of the global debt capital markets after years in the wilderness. They outperformed all other currency sectors last year in terms of total returns. The market is no longer the private fiefdom of OECD sovereigns and supranational credits. Mark B Johnson reports on a year in which the yen returned to centre stage for issuers and investors alike.

AFLAC Incorporated, the largest foreign insurance company in Japan, is set to be latest in the international corporate stream of companies seeking to raise Samurai debt. The company is planning a ¥30bn bond issue, having made a shelf registration with the Japanese regulatory authorities last week for a fund raising programme of up to ¥100bn over a two year lifespan.

There was speculation this week that Richard Li intends to buy back some of the Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) shares he sold in his surprise block sale in late August. The news helped the shares bounce back to HK$9 on Wednesday, having slumped to a low of HK$8.20 following the 4.9% block disposal by Cable & Wireless last week. Bankers in Hong Kong see this as a somewhat desperate move to shore up the stock, and believe it likely to take place in coming weeks.

The Sinopec float is finally out of the pipeline. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (CPCC), Sinopec's listing vehicle and China's largest oil refiner and number two integrated oil company, will sell 16.78bn shares to raise about $3.5bn at the mid-point of the offer range and before the greenshoe. However, the Hong Kong retail market and international institutions will not be expected to take anywhere near that amount of stock. Sinopec is placing 60% of the issue with strategic oil company investors and four Hong Kong corporate investors. This will leave around $1.4bn for other investors before the 2.517bn share greenshoe option.

Australia Standard & Poor's (S&P) lowered telecommunication firmTelstra's debt ratings from AA/A1+ to A/1 this week. The agency has had the company on creditwatch since April. The outlook is now stable.

Oversubscription in excess of $15bn for KPN's $4.4bn equivalent global financing highlighted the appetite for telecoms paper this week, heralding a warmer than anticipated reception for the upcoming supply due from France Télécom, Telecom Italia and BT before year end. KPN's four tranche issue, including five, 10 and 30 year pieces denominated in dollars, and a five year in euros, was priced through spread talk and massive oversubscription resulted in sharp tightening after break of syndicate, before profit-taking took the spreads back yesterday (Thursday).