Bonds bonanza in Asia Pacific
The New Year saw unprecedented activity in Asian debt capital markets with record levels of Asian currency bond issuance from regional governments and companies, as they tried to leverage low interest rates to help raise funds for recovery as well as growth to new markets. This included the Republic of Indonesia s 3 billion US dollar/ 1 billion euro 4-tranche sovereign issuance.
The combination of investors keen to put money to work, coupled with clients looking to extend debt maturities and capture the first available funding window, led to the landmark volume of issuance according to Deutsche Bank s APAC head of Capital Markets, Haitham Ghattas.
Asia credit roars into new year on looming debt thestar.com.my - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thestar.com.my Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Asia credit roars into new year as wall of debt looms
A busy start to the year for Asia’s debt markets reflects global cash pouring into the region and companies in a hurry to lock in funding before a record pile of dues must be repaid.
There was $22.8 billion raised in credit in the first week of January, a record for first full trading week of the year in Asia.
The amount was slightly more than the $22.5 billion raised last year, Refinitiv data shows.
A record $283.3 billion in existing debt is due to mature over 2021.
U.S. markets have also been busy, however Asia’s bankers say the rush of 37 deals this year has had phones running hot as issuers want to raise money ahead of time and as investors with extra allocation to the region’s debt have cash to put to work.
Stellaris Venture Partners and IFC’s AI4Biz announces its first cohort of 10 startups
In a virtual event, IFC and Stellaris Venture Partners programme AI4Biz, focused to support early-stage AI-focused enterprise SaaS startups, announced its first cohort of 10 startups.
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AI4Biz to support
early-stage AI-focused enterprise SaaS startups. It is an initiative in collaboration with Infosys, Cisco, Amazon Web Services (AWS), GitHub, and Freshworks to identify and support promising Indian AI-enabled SaaS startups.
The programme announced the launch of its first 10 startups as a part of this cohort.
The selected startups will have the opportunity to engage commercially with relevant companies from within Stellaris Venture Partners and IFC’s global portfolio of investments. Finally, the most promising startups will be considered for investments by Stellaris, IFC and potentially, by other collaborating organisations.