Please send job moves to
[email protected]The SECURITIES COMMISSION MALAYSIA said
last week it has liberalised the regulatory
framework for retail investors to buy corporate
bonds.
Under the framework, corporate issuers of
retail bonds will not need to publish a separate
prospectus, which is often a lengthy and
costly procedure. Issuers that meet certain
qualifications can instead issue a product
highlight sheet to proceed with a sale.
Retail investors can now buy a wider range of
bonds and sukuk than those with plain vanilla
structures.
A seasoning framework will also be
implemented to allow retail investors to buy
certain existing bonds and sukuk that are now
only accessible to sophisticated and institutional
investors on the over-the-counter market. These
must have been issued at least 12 months ago
and have a minimum credit rating of A.
The Malaysian government has tried to boost
retail investor participation in the corporate
bond market but only a handful of issuers have
sold retail bonds, while retail investors account
for just 3% of the Malaysian market. Bankers in
Malaysia said the private banking customer base
for bonds is growing but remains negligible
relative to the institutional investor base.
The latest rules were first alluded to in
November last year by SC Chairman Ranjit Ajit
Singh, who said the commission wanted to
“democratise access” to the bond market.Hillhouse Capital
US$10.6bn fundraising completedHILLHOUSE CAPITAL, an investor in top Chinese
technology firms including Tencent, has closed
its latest funding round at US$10.6bn, it said
last Wednesday, making it the region’s biggestprivate equity capital raising.
The new fund, Hillhouse Fund IV, will look for
investment opportunities across the healthcare,
consumer, technology and services sectors
globally, with a focus on Asia, the company said
in a statement.
The investment firm, founded in 2005 by Zhang
Lei with seed funds from Yale University’s
endowment, is among several China-focused
investment managers that have funds in both
US dollars and renminbi.
The private equity firm has been hiring a
number of former investment bankers in recent
months, with Mervyn Chow, previously Greater
China CEO and co-head of investment banking
and capital markets for Asia Pacific at Credit
Suisse, and Isabella Luan, formerly head of
technology, media and telecommunications for
Greater China at the Swiss bank, both joining
Hillhouse.ARE YOUR COLLEAGUES AS
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