Giant said to mull $850m loan prepayment

Rumours are swirling that Chinese company Giant Interactive, which wrapped up a $850m leveraged buyout loan only last year, is considering prepaying the money early.... more

APAC Financial Markets • #BNPParibas, #ChinaMinshengBank, #CreditSuisse, #DeutscheBank, #GoldmanSachs, #IndustrialAndCommercialBankOfChinaInternational, #JPMorgan, #Loans, #NonIGLeveragedLoan, #Syndication #Issuance/Pipeline, #SyndicatedLoans

LOANS: Duo providing stapled financing of W4trn-plus for Tesco unit buyout

BNP Paribas and HSBC are providing stapled financing of over W4trn (US$3.60bn) to bidders for British retailer Tesco’s South Korean subsidiary, Homeplus.... more

APAC Financial Markets • #BNPParibas, #Financing, #Homeplus, #HSBC, #Loans, #SouthKorea, #Syndication, #Tesco #Issuance/Pipeline, #SyndicatedLoans

KHNP fetches $300m with yearly return

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) raised $300m on June 8 as it continued its tradition of tapping the international bond market at least once a year since 2010.... more

APAC Financial Markets • #BNPParibas, #Bonds, #Citi, #GoldmanSachs, #HSBC, #InternationalBondMarket, #KHNP, #KoreaHydroAndNuclearPower #Bonds, #Issuance/Pipeline

Toyota unit seeks Rmb1.65bn

Toyota Motor Finance (China) is seeking a Rmb1.65bn (US$265m) dual-tranche revolving credit, with BNP Paribas, Hang Seng Bank, HSBC and SMBC named as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners.... more

APAC Financial Markets • #BNPParibas, #China, #DualTranche, #HangSengBank, #HSBC, #SMBC, #Toyota #Issuance/Pipeline

SFC fines BNP over cross trades

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has fined BNP Paribas Securities (Asia) HK$11m (US$1.42m) for failures related to reporting cross trades to The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.... more

APAC Financial Markets • #BNPParibas, #CrossTrades, #Fines, #HongKongSSecuritiesAndFuturesCommission #MarketNews

HPCL $400m crosses finish line with seven

Hindustan Petroleum Corp’s (HPCL) $400m 39 month facility has been allocated, with seven lenders joining in general syndication. When the loan was launched, market participants saw it as a litmus test for retail demand for three year state owned Indian assets. But while the deal got over the finish line, bankers on the loan said the response was tepid.... more

 

APAC Financial Markets • #ANZ, #BNPParibas, #DBS, #DeutscheBank, #Loans, #Mizuho, #RBS, #Syndication, #UOB #Issuance/Pipeline, #SyndicatedLoans

Traders leave Credit Suisse as rates revival sours

2015 began well for rates traders, with Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and others benefiting from a strong first quarter in rates trading. Unfortunately, the good run hasn’t lasted. Six months into the year and rates traders’ fortunes have plummeted.

“Rates is very quiet in terms of hiring,” says one rates headhunter, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Everyone had a good January and got a bit excited, but February and March were bad and it’s continued that way. 2015 is looking the same as last year – dead.”

Worse, with bond markets destructively volatile it seems rates traders are continuing to leach onto the street. Headhunters say Credit Suisse recently let go of a number of senior trading professionals. The bank didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment, but the FCA Register and the bank’s current staff confirm the recent departure of Amit Suman and Panos Giannopoulos, directors on the rates desk, along with Kilian Frensch, a VP-level rates derivatives trader, and Mike Serrero, head of European government bond trading at the bank.

“The rates market feels very slow. It’s not a booming market any more and banks are adjusting headcount for future revenue expectations,” says one trader from the Swiss bank.

Headhunters say Calyon has also let go of rates professionals in recent weeks, and a rumour is circulating that BNP Paribas’ rates desk has made a significant loss. The French bank declined to comment. Meanwhile, HSBC (which also didn’t respond to a request to comment) is said to have recently combined its rates and FX sales professionals into a single team.

BNP is in the process of cutting 100 jobs from its fixed income business, with rates reputedly at the forefront of the cuts. Headhunters say at least half of the layoffs are in support functions, however.

Follow @MadameButcher

APAC Financial Markets • #BNPParibas, #Calyon, #CreditSuisse, #Departures, #FixedIncome, #HSBC, #RatesRevivalSours, #Redundancies, #Traders #MarketNews

Why you should want to work for Goldman Sachs’ back office

If you work in investment banking operations and still value the prospect of an annual bonus – join Goldman Sachs. Goldman pays twice as much as its nearest rival, BNP Paribas, and nearly seven times as much as the lowest bonuses paid out in the back office at SocGen.

In an era when investment banks are either outsourcing their back office functions (as it the case at SocGen) or shifting the jobs out to lower cost destinations (J.P. Morgan in Bournemouth, Morgan Stanley and Barclays in Glasgow, Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Croydon), it’s all the more surprising that bonuses in operations divisions should hit tens of thousands.

And yet, new figures from salary benchmarking firm Emolument.com suggest that Goldman Sachs paid its UK back office staff an average of £38k for its back office VPs. BNP Paribas, the closest competitor in terms of bonus payments, paid £21k.

Goldman’s total comp for its back office is £125k, ahead of its nearest rivals Nomura (£116k) and Deutsche Bank (£112k). Nomura is second by virtue of its generous salaries – £108k on average. While the range in bonus payments is huge, there’s more parity across the banks when it comes to total compensation. Only SocGen (£71k) lags the pack.

If you want a big bonus and the largest total compensation, work at Goldman Sachs. If you want the security of a more generous salary, go to Nomura, Deutsche Bank or J.P. Morgan.

 

 

APAC Financial Markets • #BackOffice, #BNPParibas, #Bonuses, #DeutscheBank, #GoldmanSachs, #JobSecurity, #JPMorgan, #Nomura, #OperationsDivisions, #Pay, #Remuneration, #SocGen, #SocieteGenerale #MarketNews

Australia to crack down on bank culture

Regulator points to incentives for misconduct and the ‘fleecing’ of consumers.... more

APAC Financial Markets • #ANZ, #Australia, #AustralianInterbankRate, #AustralianSecuritiesAndInvestmentCommission, #BankingCulture, #BNPParibas, #Fines, #Manipulation, #Misconduct, #RBS, #Regulation, #RegulatorPoints, #Risk, #Settlements, #UBS, #MachiavellianTendencies #MarketNews

BNP Paribas bumps up Noirot to country head

BNP Paribas has named Philippe Noirot as the head of country for South Korea and CEO for its Seoul branch.... more

APAC Financial Markets • #BNPParibas, #CEO, #CountryHead, #SouthKorea #PeopleMoves

Anhui Transport and Haikou Meilan to explore offshore

Anhui Transportation Holding Group (Anhui Transport) has mandated a sole global co-ordinator to arrange a series of investor meetings ahead of its debut outing to the dollar bond market.... more

APAC Financial Markets • #AnhuiTransport, #BNPParibas, #CorporateBonds, #HighGrade, #HongKong, #London, #Singapore #Bonds, #Issuance/Pipeline

LOANS: Toyota Motor Finance seeks Rmb1.65bn revolver

Toyota Motor Finance (China) is seeking a Rmb1.65bn (US$265m) dual-tranche revolving credit, with BNP Paribas, Hang Seng Bank, HSBC and SMBC named as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners.... more

APAC Financial Markets • #BNPParibas, #China, #DualTranche, #HangSengBank, #HSBC, #Loans, #SMBC, #Syndication, #ToyotaMotorFinance #Issuance/Pipeline, #SyndicatedLoans

TCC pours out $468m rights as OP trades block

TCC International Holdings, a manufacturer and importer of cement, will raise HK$3.63bn ($468.23m) in a rights issue fully underwritten by its major shareholder, BNP Paribas and JP Morgan.... more

APAC Financial Markets • #BNPParibas, #Equities, #JPMorgan, #RightsIssue, #TCCInternational #Equities, #Issuance/Pipeline

Seven take HPCL $400m past finish line

Hindustan Petroleum Corp’s (HPCL) $400m 39 month facility has been allocated, with seven lenders joining in general syndication. When the loan was launched, market participants saw it as a litmus test for retail demand for three year state owned Indian assets. While the deal got past the finish line, bankers on the loan said the response was tepid.... more

 

APAC Financial Markets • #ANZ, #BNPParibas, #DBS, #DeutscheBank, #HindustanPetroleum, #InvestmentGrade, #Loans, #RBS, #Syndication, #UOB #Issuance/Pipeline, #SyndicatedLoans

BNP Paribas Fined in Hong Kong for Unreported Cross Trades

BNP Paribas SA was reprimanded and fined HK$11 million ($1.4 million) by Hong Kong’s securities regulator for failing to report more than HK$6 billion of cross trades over a 10-year period.

BNP Paribas Securities (Asia) Ltd. failed to report 4,443 pairs of cross trades to the Hong Kong stock exchange from December 2002 to January 2013, the Securities and Futures Commission said in a statement on Monday. In a cross trade, buy and sell orders for the same stock are offset without recording the trade on the exchange.

The firm failed to provide the dealers responsible for the reporting with sufficient resources to discharge their duties, the regulator said. The failures were “particularly serious” as they lasted for an extended period of time and involved a large number of trades, it said.

“This case demonstrates that reporting failures cannot be taken lightly,” Mark Steward, the regulator’s executive directive of enforcement, said in the statement.

BNP Paribas said in a statement that it had strengthened internal controls so that “the issues noted by the commission cannot be repeated.” The company “seeks to uphold the highest levels of regulatory compliance and looks forward to continuing to deliver a high level of service to its clients,” it said.

BNP Paribas has introduced an automated process to electronically report the type of transactions, outside of trading hours, which led to the fine, the securities commission said in a separate statement of disciplinary action. In February 2013, the company had told the regulator of its failure to report about 4,000 of the “late cross trades,” the SFC’s summary of facts showed.

by Alfred Liu

APAC Financial Markets • #BNPParibas, #Fines, #HongKong, #Regulator #MarketNews