PTTEP achieves first gas from Block H offshore Malaysia

15:16, February 16, 2021

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  Solid offshore bond issuances likely this year

  A clerk counts cash at a bank in Nantong, Jiangsu province. (Photo: Sipa)Citigroup expects instruments to exceed $220b in foreign currencies overseasChina will see strong issuance of offshore bonds this year, although investors may continue to see sporadic bond defaults, which will not affect sound development of the overall market, said Citigroup."Default rates of Chinas bonds issued offshore were fairly low in the past, and the interest rates basically remained at a historically low level, so the impact of defaults on the countrys dollar bond issuance in the offshore market is very limited," said David Mao, managing director of Asia debt capital markets at Citi.Last year, the volume of Chinas bonds issued overseas in foreign currencies reached $220.4 billion, hitting a high in recent years, according to data from Citi, Bloomberg and Dealogic.In the same year, 13 Chinese companies defaulted on bonds in the offshore markets, worth a combined $8.2 billion, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The combined value of defaults accounted for 0.9 percent of the outstanding amount of the countrys total offshore bonds, worth $909.3 billion."Compared with the onshore market, the offshore market-which has many levels of credit ratings and a better risk structure system-is more mature in terms of the level of acceptance for bond defaults and how to settle and handle defaults. Therefore, the defaults did not cause excessive fear among investors in the offshore market," Mao said."Investors in the international bond market have been holding onto the mindset of let the buyer beware for many years. They are fully aware of risk factors when making investments in dollar bonds. Some investors are willing to take more risks so that they may get higher returns," he added.The trailing 12-month high-yield nonfinancial corporate default rate for Asia-Pacific will be 3.6 percent at the end of this year, down from 7.3 percent in 2020, und...

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  Zimbabwe receives its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from China

  15 -- A batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China arrived in Robert Mugabe International Airport in Zimbabwe's capital here on early Monday morning.Zimbabwean Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, together with Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Guo Shaochun, attended the handover ceremony at the airp

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  First bodies recovered from Indian flood disaster tunnel

  Rescuers on Sunday pulled the first bodies from a blocked tunnel at a power complex in a northern Indian valley devastated by a flash flood a week ago, where 161 people remain missing.Indian army and rescue teams stand outside the entrance of a tunnel blocked with mud and debris during rescue operations in Tapovan of Chamoli district on February 8, 2021 following a flash flood thought to have been caused when a glacier burst on February 7. (Photo: AFP)Scores were killed in Uttarakhand state when the deluge -- thought to have been triggered by a chunk of glacier sliding down a mountainside or a glacial lake breaching its banks -- swept down the Rishiganga valley in minutes, destroying roads, bridges and buildings. Amid warnings that river levels could rise again, the corpses of three victims were retrieved from the tunnel, where at least 30 people are thought to have been trapped by mud and rocks.Initially there were hopes that those inside might still be alive in air pockets. Two more bodies were found in a devastated village nearby, police said, bringing the total recovered over the past week to 43. One of those identified was that of Alam Singh, a father of two. His family received a call from rescue officials early Sunday telling them that his body had finally been found.His brother said they would now have to find a way to tell the mans young daughters."We were still hoping for the best. But now we have to tell them. He went to work that day like any other day but never did we think this would happen," Surat Singh told AFP.Rescuers have been working around the clock to clear out mud and debris from the tunnel at the Tapovan hydroelectric plant.Some relatives have held protests at the entrance accusing authorities of not working fast enough to find the men.Authorities warned residents of a new rise in the water level but locals still gathered around the tunnel again on Sunday waiting for news.Many were colleagues of those stuck inside, who escaped...