Southeast Asia

Recent deals have involved hotel, food delivery and energy assets from firms in Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand. Japanese corporates are seeking diversification in western markets.

Despite growing investor confidence, a challenging fundraising environment in the region persists. The role of AI in deals is gaining in importance.

As investors show more confidence in China's onshore bond market, Singapore's UOB priced a three-year panda bond at 1.83% on March 18, while Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas also issued panda bonds worth over Rmb5bn this month.

Across four tranches, it the Singapore firm's inaugural Australian issuance and continues the infrastructure platform's fundraising momentum with its largest private placement.

Singapore-based Indran Thana is joining in June from UBS.

The logistics and real estate business, which has operations in Singapore and Japan, raised S$1.2bn on the main exchange but listed in a difficult week for equities amid war in the Middle East.

SC's operating profit grew 6% last year; Zurich Australia snaps up life insurer ClearView; Citi Vietnam appoints Thai Nguyet Minh as head of markets.

If the deal is finalised, a combination of the US and UK global asset managers will control almost $2.5 trillion of assets under management; they both have offices across Apac.

SIngapore Exchange's trading turnover jumped 66% in January with strong activity from both retail and institutional investors.