HONG KONG: Investment banks in Asia will be hard pressed to match this year's record equity issuance in 2007, unless a new wave of private Chinese and Indian companies replaces the furious fund-raising by China's state-owned firms.
Driven by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China's bumper US$21.9bil IPO, equity capital markets (ECM) volumes in non-Japan Asia Pacific hit a record US$162bil this year, more than a third higher than last year's US$121.3bil, according to preliminary data from Dealogic.