text:
Q: get different data from component to other component in angular 4 I want to show my component data into other component using service. i have 3 component.
service.ts
import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { BehaviorSubject } from 'rxjs/BehaviorSubject';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable';
import { Subject } from 'rxjs/Subject';

@Injectable()

export class GlobalserviceService {

  private _listners = new Subject<any>();

  listen(): Observable<any> {
    return this._listners.asObservable();
  }

  filter(filterBy: string) {
    this._listners.next(filterBy);
  }
}

component one
mapLegends = [
    {
      name: 'hello',
      checked: true,
  color:'#1ac3ec'
    },
    {
      name: 'hello 1',
      checked: true,
  color:'#7dc55c'
    },
]

component two
mapLegends = [
    {
      name: 'hello 3',
      checked: true,
  color:'#1ac3ec'
    },
    {
      name: 'hello 4',
      checked: true,
  color:'#7dc55c'
    },
]

component three
mapLegends = [
    {
      name: 'hello 5',
      checked: true,
  color:'#1ac3ec'
    },
    {
      name: 'hello 6',
      checked: true,
  color:'#7dc55c'
    },
]

i want each component data into other component. i do not want to use input or output property.
its a sibling component
it would be great help to give me demo

A: Angular has no strict rules for sibling component communication. If the @Input/@Output decorators are not suitable solution for you, than you could simply create "shared service" register it as singelton and inject them where they are needed - Example "Unrelated Components: Sharing Data with a Service" paragraph is what you are looking for . If you need to catch events instead of data you could use the  EventEmitter. Working example is available in this post.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Argentina's two-year market honeymoon ends in separation
IFR 2233 12 May to 18 May 2018
Americas, Emerging Markets
Paul Kilby, Sudip Roy, Gareth Gore
Just two years after regaining access to markets, ending more than a decade as a financial pariah, Argentina has once again found itself shut off from global capital after a new financial crisis hit the country, forcing it to ask for help from the International Monetary Fund.
The crisis, which has been brewing since the Banco Central de la Republica Argentina ditched inflation targets in December, culminated in a run on the peso.
Three emergency hikes, which took rates to a record 40%, failed to stop the bleeding, leaving Buenos Aires with little option but to call the IMF.
It's a reversal in fortunes for the country, which briefly became the darling of markets after hatching a historic deal with creditors in March 2016. Almost US$100bn of cross-border bond, loan and equity deals priced in the following two years, injecting much-needed capital into Argentina's economy after decades of malaise.
Issuers that just months ago had printed deals that were many times oversubscribed are now once again shut out.
The equity capital markets haven't seen a deal since February, while a healthy pipeline of bond deals that had been planned has now dried up after a series of cancellations over the past fortnight.
"Argentina enjoyed a honeymoon with external markets over the last two years but it now looks like they are going through a separation, with the IMF helping out," said Donato Guarino, emerging markets strategist at Citigroup. "So much depends now on the dollar and the wider prospects for emerging markets."
CAUGHT IN THE CROSSHAIRS
While the BCRA's ditching of inflation targets and policy mis-steps from the government – including ill-judged new taxes on bonds – have contributed to the crisis, Argentina is in many ways a victim of a turning tide of investor sentiment towards emerging markets that has its roots in US monetary policy shifts.
Rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve have reversed capital flows, sucking money back into the world's largest economy, where investors can earn decent rates in relatively risk-free assets.
As the US dollar rises, currencies such as the Argentinian peso, Turkish lira and Indonesian rupiah have hit record lows.
"While each country has its own domestic issues that could justify the decline, the real culprit is a greenback that has risen sharply," said Joshua Roberts, an associate at advisory firm JCRA. "Tremors in US trade and monetary policy will not stop sending shockwaves around the world any time soon."
News of Argentina's appeal to the IMF on Tuesday helped calm markets, sparking a brief rally in the peso, which earlier in the day had touched a record low of 23.1 to the dollar. That is just over half the level it was trading at after President Mauricio Macri removed currency controls at the end of 2015.
Attempts over previous days to stem the rout had largely failed. The BCRA raised rates three times – by a total 1,275bp – in just a week, sending policy rates to 40%, the highest in the world. The central bank also spent over US$5bn of its foreign currency reserves supporting the peso.
Macri said external help was necessary because the government's gradualist reforms, introduced since he took power just over two years ago, required markets to keep funding a large deficit.
The sovereign needs to raise about US$20bn a year from external markets over the next four years.
"During our first two years, we've benefited from a very favourable global backdrop, but today that is changing," Macri said in a televised speech. "The problem we have is that we are among the countries most dependent on external financing, a product of the enormous public spending we inherited."
But the decision to call in the IMF is political dynamite, coming less than 20 years after the country's last international bailout. That forced deep cuts to government spending that many believe led to the emergency economic measures known as the "corralito" in 2001 and a default shortly after. With elections next year, there are risks that the gambit could backfire.
Still, many believe Macri had no other option.
"Their only real options were to hike even more, to impose capital controls, or seek help from the IMF," said Dirk Willer, head of emerging market strategy at Citigroup. "Given that Macri's administration so far has been all about dismantling capital controls, the IMF was the only real option."
DEAL WITH CREDITORS
The appeal also comes just two years after Macri's government lifted a pari passu injunction preventing payments on the debt the country defaulted on during the 2001 and 2002 crisis.
Then came the country's dramatic return to capital markets a few weeks later. It sold US$16.5bn of bonds in what at the time was the largest-ever bond deal from emerging markets.
That return opened the door to a flood of capital into the country, with municipal government, utility companies and corporates keen to load up on financing after years in the financial wilderness.
But easy financing conditions have come to a decisive end.
Telecom Argentina and Petroquimica Comodora Rivadavia have both postponed planned bond deals in recent days, citing uncertain market conditions. Crop specialist Bioceres also pulled the plug on its New York IPO in February, while potential listings from Molino Canuelas and Gennaia are uncertain.
"IMF talks help the tone … but investor anxiety around the situation remains," said one DCM syndicate manager. "There is a lot of financing to be done. There are lots of issuers that have financing needs."
IMPACT ON GROWTH
According to Guarino, access to external capital is key.
"The local market doesn't have the capacity to absorb the funding needs of the government, provinces and corporates," he said. "And a lack of access to credit, especially for corporates, could lead to the cancellation of investments and eventually to lower economic growth."
Others are more sanguine about the situation, and believe markets should reopen before too long.
"Investors do not believe there's been a change in fundamentals or that the thesis for investing in Argentina has changed," said Sebastian Loketek, head of investment banking for Argentina at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who added that "dedicated players are generally not selling".
"There needs to be a catalyst to change the current sentiment," he said. "Nothing tells me that the market is going to be closed for too long but investors are definitely going to be more selective and very focused on valuations."
But with emerging markets in general feeling the impact of the rising dollar, the future of Argentinian issuers may be completely out of their hands. A further three rate hikes are expected from the Fed this year, which could make matters worse.
"Some have labelled the situation a sudden stop, and there are certainly aspects of that," said Willer.
"It's not surprising that this is happening during a period when the dollar has been strengthening. You can't have higher US rates and a stronger dollar and expect emerging markets to do fine – and you especially can't expect emerging market countries that need a lot of financing to be fine."
Others think the problem is isolated, and point out that wider emerging markets are fundamentally sound.
"Markets have naturally focused on weaker credits," said Jan Dehn, head of research at Ashmore, who added that the reaction in markets was "tediously predictable".
"Emerging markets in general are solid," he said.
Tags - 12
Emerging Market Countries
More from IFR magazine
RBS fine opens door for UK sale options
A lower-than-expected fine for Royal Bank of Scotland from US authorities for past mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities opens the door for the UK government to restart the sale of its RBS shares and for the bank to start CEO succession planning. RBS said last week it had agreed in principle with the US Department of Justice to pay US$4.9bn to settle the investigation. That cost was far below most forecasts from analysts, some of whom reckoned RBS could have to shell out US$12bn. The investigation has been hanging over RBS for many years, and getting it resolved opens a path to a normalisation of the bank. Britain's government still owns 71.2% of RBS after bailing it out with £45.5bn of taxpayer cash in the 2007/08 financial crisis. It said in November it wanted to sell £3bn of shares before April 2019, but that process was effectively on hold until the US fine was paid. It also opens the door for RBS to restart dividends, cut debt interest payments via a liability management exercise, or even look to buy back some of the UK government's shares. "They have far more flexibility with their capital position now they know the DoJ number," said Joseph Dickerson, analyst at Jefferies. RBS said US$3.46bn of the proposed civil settlement would be covered by existing provisions and it would take a US$1.44bn charge in the second quarter to cover the rest. Analysts said that will cut RBS's common equity Tier 1 ratio by 50bps. That and a recent pension fund payment will still leave it with a capital ratio 100bps above its near-term 14% CET target, leaving a surplus of about £2.2bn. "The bulk of excess capital should be used to help buy down the government's stake and help clean up its capital structure," Dickerson said. RBS shares rallied more than 5% after the settlement and were trading at 292 pence early on Friday. RBS's bonds also snapped tighter. Its €1.5bn 1.75% March 2025s rallied from mid-swaps plus 121bp to 110bp and a US$2.65bn 8.625% perp NC2021 squeezed from 5.70% to 5.46%. The share rise increased the value of Britain's 8.4bn RBS shares to £24.5bn. The government's only RBS share sale to date was in August 2015, when it raised £2.1bn by selling shares at 330p each. It paid an average price of 502p per share, leaving the government sitting on a paper loss of about £19bn at current prices, or a 42% loss. Bankers believe the government will accept selling shares significantly below the price it paid - at least to begin with - with the hope that the price recovers during the course of what will be a lengthy sales process. Selling shares would improve liquidity in RBS stock. "A loss is a bit of a fuzzy notion, as at the time the government subscribed to its shares RBS included Citizens Bank, WorldPay and Direct Line, so you can't compare the business today to then," Dickerson said. CEO EXIT? RBS CEO Ross McEwan might also take the opportunity of a resumption of a share sale and the US fine to make plans to step down, bankers and analysts speculated. McEwan, a New Zealander, took over as CEO in October 2013. Industry sources said while he doesn't seem in a hurry to leave, they don't expect him to stay beyond 2019 and the resumption of UK share sales would mark an opportune time to exit. "With the job of RMBS settlement almost complete and a return to dividends in sight, we also expect RBS to confirm a successor to current CEO Ross McEwan in 2H18," UBS analyst Jason Napier said in a note. That could allow for an orderly handover, with current RBS finance director Ewen Stevenson seen as a potential replacement. Stevenson is a former Credit Suisse investment banker who joined RBS as CFO in May 2014. Another New Zealander, he worked at Credit Suisse for 25 years, most recently as co-head of EMEA investment banking and co-head of its global financial institutions group. Another internal candidate to step into McEwan's shoes is Alison Rose, head of its commercial and private banking. McEwan played down speculation he could leave soon
EMEA, Americas
Steve Slater
Selling pressure on Turkey abates but problems persist
Asset prices in Turkey were showing some signs of recovery by the end of last week after a crushing few days that saw the country at the centre of a broader sell-off of emerging markets risk. As with Argentina, Turkey has been caught out by a combination of a stronger US dollar and rising US Treasury yields, which have exposed the flaws of a fragile economy dependent on short-term capital flows. The lira tested lows against the dollar throughout the early part of the week while Turkey's bonds gapped out. By the London open on Thursday the sovereign's 6.125% October 2028s, which were issued on April 16 at a yield of 6.20%, were bid at 6.915%, according to Thomson Reuters data. But the bonds were trading at 6.73% by the afternoon as the dollar ran out of steam and 10-year Treasury yields were back inside the psychologically important 3% level. Turkey is particularly vulnerable to a rising rates environment because of its current account and fiscal deficits - similar to the problems faced by economies such as Argentina, Indonesia and South Africa. "Turkey has been one of the weakest links in EM all along. When the tide goes out, there's nowhere to hide. Financing the balance of payments with portfolio inflows, backed by policymaking that has not been credible for an extended period, has made the country vulnerable," said Cristiana de Alessi, EM portfolio manager at BNP Paribas Asset Management. "It's a credit bubble that is externally funded - the worst combination possible," she added. NOT WORKING Fears are growing that the economy is overheating, while investor alarm about double-digit inflation has been heightened by President Tayyip Erdogan's drive for lower interest rates. "Turkey has been trying everything in the book except significant interest rate hikes, and it is clearly not working," said de Alessi. Even while the lira was in freefall, a statement from the president's office on Wednesday failed to provide clarity about whether central bank policy would change. "Necessary measures will be taken to decrease the pressure on interest rates and exchange rates, and in turn battle more effectively with inflation," the presidency said. "The central bank will continue to use the instruments at its disposal effectively in this regard," it added, without providing any details. In contrast to Argentina, where the central bank hiked its main policy rate by 1,275bp in little over a week before asking the IMF for help, Turkey's authorities have taken more piecemeal steps to support its currency. The central bank provided some additional liquidity to the foreign exchange market last week but has refrained from hiking rates since a more-than-expected 75bp raising on April 25. But even that step was undermined by a subsequent announcement by the government that it would loosen fiscal policy, which hadn't been previously accounted for in the budget. Erdogan has called a snap election that will be held on June 24, so the government's focus is likely to be on growth at all costs. Last week's presidency statement, for example, also advised banks to continue making loans more accessible to the real estate sector. But some investors have used the recent sell-off as an excuse to buy more Turkish risk. "We have increased exposure to Turkish corporates on the weakness. The valuations of Turkish bonds really stand out. It may have used to be investment-grade, but even now at Double B Turkey is cheap, the banks are cheap, and this factor cannot be ignored by global investors," said Sergey Goncharov, portfolio manager at Vontobel Asset Management. Additional reporting by Robert Hogg
Hedge fund questions UniCredit's capital
A strong set of quarterly results from UniCredit last week was overshadowed by a campaign from hedge fund Caius Capital questioning the status of the Italian bank's capital structure. Caius said €2.98bn of crisis-era convertible bonds were more junior than UniCredit's shares. Caius is reported to have shorted the bonds so could benefit if they lose value. Caius declined to comment if it was short, but has not denied its motives are commercial. Earlier this year Caius succeeded in getting West Bromwich Building Society to admit that similar legacy hybrid instruments were no longer eligible to be included in common equity Tier 1 calculations under European Union capital rules, which came into place in 2014. In a letter to Andrea Enria, chairman of the European Banking Authority, Caius said some of UniCredit's CASHES [convertible and subordinated hybrid equity-linked securities] should rank below its ordinary shares since they only received a coupon if a dividend was paid. "Dividends are paid on ordinary shares in priority to payments on the CASHES," Caius said in the letter, which was also copied to UniCredit chief executive Jean Pierre Mustier and Daniele Nouy, chair of the supervisory board at the European Central Bank. At present the bank "co-mingles" both types of securities, contrary to CET1 guidelines. And UniCredit already deems €609m of the CASHES, which were restructured in 2011, as Tier 2, while the remainder are CET1-eligible, further muddying the picture. "An instrument can only count as one type of capital. It is either eligible as CET1 or eligible as Tier 2 (or neither). To allow the same instrument to constitute both CET1 and Tier 2 capital weakens the perceived quality of CET1 capital, and therefore undermines confidence in capital overall," Caius said in the letter. "Either the ordinary shares of UniCredit all constitute eligible CET1 instruments or eligible Tier 2 instruments – they cannot be both," it said. If the shares were ranked higher in the capital structure than the convertible bonds it would have dramatic implications for UniCredit. Caius suggested a solution would be to make use of a clause in the CASHES, allowing them to be automatically converted into ordinary shares. Holders would only receive 6% of the face value of the CASHES. Caius said this would save the bank from making coupon payments to bondholders, as well as clarifying UniCredit's capital position. UniCredit acknowledged receipt of the letter and said the regulatory treatment of the CASHES had been "fully disclosed to the market and confirmed and reviewed by the competent regulators." It said they had "no material impact on the group's regulatory ratios". LEGAL ACTION Mustier said at a results presentation last week that the bank was also evaluating legal action to protect the bank. Caius responded by asking UniCredit to outline the regulatory reviews of the CASHES transaction and related capital questions as well as more details of how their coupons are paid. At the end of March UniCredit's CET1 ratio was 13.06% after it reported a 23% rise in net profit to €1.1bn. Last year it raised €13bn via an equity issue as part of a wider restructuring of its non-performing loans portfolio. The EBA and ECB did not respond to a request for comment. Caius was set up in 2016 by Antonio Batista, former distressed credit partner at Och Ziff, and William Douglas, ex-head of EMEA prime brokerage advisory at Goldman Sachs.
BON P&M
Christopher Spink
Poll shock for Malaysian bonds
Malaysian bonds tumbled last Thursday after a surprise election win for the opposition ended more than six decades of government rule by the same party. Shortly after the market opened, Malaysia's US dollar sovereign bonds due 2026 jumped more than 10bp to a spread of 97bp over Treasuries, before easing to Treasuries plus 92bp, still 7bp wider than Wednesday's close of 85bp. Malaysian sovereign five-year CDS widened by 7bp to 93bp in active trading on Thursday, as the Asia ex-Japan iTraxx investment CDS index tightened by 0.25bp. State-owned oil company Petroliam Nasional's bonds widened by 9bp in choppy trading before recovering. Petronas' 2022s were seen at Treasuries plus 102bp on Thursday morning, before recovering to 95bp, 2bp wider than Wednesday's close. The Malaysian markets were closed on Thursday and Friday for a public holiday. The Pakatan Harapan coalition, led by 92 year-old Mahathir Mohamad, who previously served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003, defeated Najib Razak's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition by a simple majority in Wednesday's elections. Najib's United Malays National Organisation party has held power since Malaysia declared independence in 1957. Analysts cautioned that the change could be negative for the country's finances. "Little is known about the opposition's full range of economic policies, and its electoral pledges have lacked details that would allow for a full assessment of their budgetary and macroeconomic impact," said Anushka Shah, Moody's lead sovereign analyst for Malaysia. During the campaign, Mahathir said that, if elected, he planned to pardon opposition politician and former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is currently in prison, and hand over the prime minister role to him. Mahathir, who was sworn in as PM on Thursday, is expected to keep his populist promises to reintroduce fuel subsidies and replace the goods and services tax with a sales and service tax. Although Moody's said these measures would be credit negative, shrinking the government's revenue base and impacting its fiscal position, Natixis' senior economist for emerging Asia, Trinh D Nguyen, believes that the proposed SST and recent oil price rise will offset the effects. "Our analysis shows that both the increase of [fuel] subsidy and repealing of GST would cause the deficit to widen only to 3.7% in 2018 from 3.1% in 2017, and to 4.2% in 2019," said Nguyen. A wider concern remains over how Mahathir will manage the economy in light of his actions in 1997, when, as PM, he refused an IMF bailout and implemented currency and capital controls. Although the controls ultimately helped Malaysia weather the Asian financial crisis better than its neighbours, they caused consternation in global markets. Mahathir last week sought to allay such concerns, pledging to keep the country "business-friendly", and to hold the ringgit "as steady as possible". 1MDB MARKDOWN Much of the campaign focused on alleged corruption involving Malaysia's 1Malaysia Development state investment fund. On Thursday, 1MDB's 4.4% 2023 bond issue was bid 13 points lower than the previous night's close at a cash price of 80, implying a yield of 9.7%, according to Tradeweb. A credit trader, however, warned that this quote might not reflect actual trading. Those bonds have a letter of support from the government, but not a direct guarantee, raising concerns that a new administration might not honour them, given that much of the proceeds were allegedly diverted elsewhere. Mahathir said at a press conference on Thursday that he believed it was possible to recover most of 1MDB's lost funds. The US dollar 2022 bonds of CIMB, whose group chairman is Najib's brother, widened by 5bp to Treasuries plus 121bp. "It's not as bad as people expected," said a fund manager. "1MDB is worst affected." However, the trader said that the full impact on credit may not be felt until Monday, when the stock market will also reopen. Investors expect government bond yields to
Kit Yin Boey
Intesa Sanpaolo rides out political uncertainty
Italy's largest banks and its economy have defied the country's unpromising backdrop of political deadlock as two eurosceptic populist parties struggle to form a government two months after an election. "Italy is strong and delivering growth even with the current political questions," said Carlo Messina, chief executive of the country's biggest lender Intesa Sanpaolo, after reporting a 39% rise in first-quarter net profit to €1.25bn. This looks to have continued after March's inconclusive elections. "During April and May we saw growth too," Messina told IFR. Over the last 18 months Italy's banks have taken major steps in overcoming their post-crisis difficulties by raising capital levels and reducing their €360bn portfolio of non-performing loans. UniCredit and Monte dei Paschi di Siena achieved this with private and state help, respectively. Intesa followed those major transactions by taking on the performing assets of struggling lenders Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza in June and setting up a special purpose vehicle last month with Sweden's Intrum Justitia to service €10.8bn of its own NPLs. Messina, who has been CEO since September 2013, started to detect more optimism among corporate clients in the second half of last year. "We could tell Italian companies were starting to invest," he said. He is optimistic it will continue. "This is not a special situation for this quarter. The political situation is not a worry." DEBT MOUNTAIN Italian government bond yields gapped out this week as investors reacted to the latest political developments, however. New elections loom if the anti-establishment Five Star Movement can't reach a deal with the League, a party previously calling for a separate Northern Italian state. The difference between 10-year German government bond yields and their Italian equivalents was 135bp, its widest since the election, but still far tighter than the 550bp spread seen at the peak of the eurozone crisis in 2012. Back then Italian banks, major holders of Italian government bonds, were staring at major losses. Even if they were to gap out again, this would be less of a concern now for Intesa as it has diversified into other government bonds. Domestic bond holdings were cut to 46% of its portfolio, with foreign Triple A debt making up 30%. "We have speeded this up," said Messina. He also said perennial concerns about the high proportion of government debt to Italy's GDP, at over 130%, are overdone. "Yes, we have €2trn of public debt but we also have €600bn of government-owned real estate. That is a problem of management," he said. "We have to reduce our debt but it is not a worry as we are growing." STRONG LEADERSHIP Although his customers have remained confident and the economy has grown, Messina said strong political leadership is desirable not only to confront debt management issues but also to put a coherent Italian voice at a European level. Italy has been lucky during the crisis to have had Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank, with an implicit understanding, as an Italian, of the country and its idiosyncrasies. But that could change next year when he steps down. "We will need a strong government to represent Italy by then," said Messina. "It's a question, for instance, of having Italians at different levels of supervisors who are aware of the Spanish and Italian differences." Those two countries have different rules for how loans should be accounted for by banks if they are no longer being paid by debtors. NAVIGATING SANCTIONS Having strong political leadership is also important if banks want to help customers in trickier jurisdictions, such as Russia and Iran. "It's important to follow international rules and respect them," said Messina. That is hard when rules change, as has happened with regard to both Russia and Iran. But Intesa is used to treading delicately. Last year it lent €5bn to Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority to help acquire 19.5% of Russian oil ma
BON ECON P&M
Who's moving where
Societe Generale has rehired Alexandre Fleury from Bank of America Merrill Lynch as head of equities and equity derivatives within global markets in its corporate and investment banking business. Fleury will start on June 1 in Paris and report to Frank Drouet, head of global markets. Fleury had been BAML's head of equities structured products and structured financing since 2016. He started his career in California in software development and then spent 10 years with SG in Tokyo, New York and Paris, before joining Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and BAML. Rothschild has hired Sumner Farren and Sara Coyle as managing directors in the Chicago office of its advisory team for industrials. Farren and Coyle join from UBS. They were previously with BAML and have worked together on transactions at both banks, including the sales of Charter Nex Films to Leonard Green and Consolidated Container to Loews Corporation. They will join in June, tasked with helping to build Rothschild's presence in general industrials, distribution, paper and packaging. Former Deutsche Bank banker Andrew Tusa has joined Barclays as a managing director in its corporate broking team. He will be based in London and report to Kunal Gandhi, head of corporate broking. Tusa was co-head of UK corporate broking at Deutsche, where he worked for three years. Barclays has been building up its UK corporate broking business in recent years and is now broker to about 20 FTSE 100 companies. Jefferies has hired Goldman Sachs veteran Peter Scheman as co-head of Americas industrials investment banking, a source said. Scheman, the former US head of building products and engineering and construction coverage at Goldman, will be a partner at Jefferies, and serve alongside the other Americas industrials co-head, Tom Fennimore, the source said. Scheman previously spent 17 years at Tanner & Co. At Jefferies, Scheman will continue to cover deals in building products as well as engineering and construction sectors. Steve Weller, global head of FX at Sberbank, has been appointed chief executive of Middle East and North Africa for Danish lender Saxo Bank. He will be based in Dubai and report to Damian Bunce, chief client officer. Before joining the state-owned Russian bank, Weller was head of FX Asia-Pacific at Barclays. He had previously been global head of FX spot and forward trading at Lehman Brothers. Bunce joined Saxo in January from Sberbank, where he was head of electronic markets. Barclays has hired former Credit Suisse managing director Matt Pecot as head of equities for Asia-Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, Pecot reports to Stephen Dainton, who joined as global head of equities last year, also from Credit Suisse. Pecot will be responsible for building out the bank's equities business, which includes derivatives and prime brokerage services. Pecot's appointment comes as Barclays is once again stepping up its activities in the region following several years of retrenchment. Khaled Darwish, a debt capital markets banker who covered the Middle East for JP Morgan, has resigned from the bank, according to sources. One source said Darwish was moving to HSBC. Darwish's responsibilities at JP Morgan included the origination and execution of DCM transactions for sovereigns, banks and corporates from the Middle East. He had been at the bank for more than 10 years. Former Credit Suisse banker Isabella Luan has joined Hillhouse Capital Group as a managing director in Hong Kong. Luan, who spent 10 years with CS and was most recently head of TMT for Greater China, rejoins Mervyn Chow, who joined Hillhouse this year from CS. Natixis has named John-Charles van Essche the global head of restructuring and workout. Van Essche will be based in Paris and report to Anne-Christine Champion, global head of distribution and portfolio management. Commerzbank has hired Anthony Vives de Montal as a director in its public sector debt capital markets business, according to sources. Vives de Mo
Myanmar: Yoma to debut in baht
Yoma Strategic Holdings is poised to become the first company from Myanmar to sell bonds with a baht-denominated offering that underlines Thailand's appeal as a regional funding hub. "Yoma will be the first Myanmar entity to tap the Thai bond market, and will come before the sovereign, which is nowhere ready to tap yet," said a Thai government official. The diversified company is among four foreign companies that were given permission in early May by the Ministry of Finance's Public Debt Management Office to sell bonds in Thailand and to take the proceeds abroad. The other three are repeat borrowers EDL-Generation and Export-Import Bank of Korea, and Malaysia's Malayan Banking, a new credit to the Thai market. All four have until January 31 2019 to sell the bonds. "Thailand has developed initiatives to promote itself as a hub for financing and investments in the region, where you can issue baht bonds to the domestic market and are allowed to take the funds offshore," said Yoma's chief financial officer JR Ching. "That is an interesting development for Yoma to support our future growth in Myanmar." Yoma, advised by Twin Pine Group, is finalising the transaction but has not mandated any bank yet on the deal, which will materialise only if pricing and market conditions conform with its targets. If completed, the bond offering will be the SGX-listed company's first issuance. Yoma has so far relied on bank loans and equity issues for funding. It raised S$82m (US$61m) last November from a share placement to existing and new investors. Although listed in Singapore, the company's assets are mainly in Myanmar, where its interests include real estate, consumer, automotive, agriculture and logistics and tourism-related industries. It is also diversifying into mobile financial services and power production. Its credentials were further enhanced after the International Finance Corporation took a stake in a micro-power joint venture with Yoma and Norway's state-owned Norfund.
Rebates rock faith in China high-yield
Plunging prices on newly issued high-yield bonds from China have thrown the spotlight on marketing tactics that investors claim are distorting prices in the primary market. All but one of the 22 high-yield or unrated US dollar bonds sold by Chinese property developers since the start of April have fallen below their reoffer price, according to bid prices on Friday. A dozen have slid by more than a point, and the worst performers by more than four. The dismal showing is down in part to general weakness in emerging markets amid rising US dollar yields, a drop in demand from Chinese bank treasuries and a deluge of new issues from the Chinese property sector. But some bankers and investors claim that undisclosed rebates and unsold bookrunner positions are adding to the problem. In particular, sources say that some investors are cutting sweetheart deals to buy new bonds at a discount to reoffer. Those investors then show a lower price in secondary trading, adding to the selling pressure in an already weak market. Five bankers at both Western and Chinese firms told IFR that institutional investors had asked them for rebates in return for their participation in a new issue. Rebate requests have ranged from 0.3%–0.4% to as much as 1% of face value, according to three bankers at different firms. "Because they were offered rebates from other bookrunners, several investors asked me to match it if I wanted a sole order from them," said a Hong Kong-based syndicate banker. "I can lose my job for doing that." Rebates are an accepted way of attracting orders from private banks, as long as they are fully disclosed in offering documentation. But granting similar treatment to institutional investors goes against the concept of a fixed-price reoffer, where underwriters in the syndicate commit to sell securities at a single price until the bonds are free to trade. The use of incentives has become especially prevalent in recent weeks, as underwriters have been struggling to sell a high volume of new issues in a weak market. Another Hong Kong-based syndicate banker held internal meetings recently to discuss whether the firm should also be offering rebates. "We took a view that offering rebates to investors doesn't help us, nor does it help the issuer, investors or our peers. Some investors have told us that if they hear that rebates are being offered on a particular deal, they won't participate because they know the bond prices will go down," the banker said. "The impact from this is going to take time to settle." Bankers and investors warned that such tactics might enable issuers to access the capital markets, but would be damaging to the Asian bond market in the long run. "This impacts the integrity of the market and causes confusion," said a senior Hong Kong-based banker. "It also causes the bonds to fall in secondary, and investors are now more keen to stay on the sidelines and pick up cheapened bonds in secondary rather than coming into live deals." Average yields in Asia's junk bond market have jumped 200bp so far this year, according to ANZ, which lists two Chinese property bonds among the five worst performers in Asian high-yield this year. Some international fund managers say they have lost all confidence in lower-rated Chinese new issues as a result. "In a functional environment, these deals should stop coming," said a London-based portfolio manager. "If there's no demand, then they shouldn't sell the bonds." NO CONFIDENCE The poor performance continued last week as more Chinese property developers piled into the offshore market. A new 7% perpetual from Minmetals Land was immediately bid at 98.25 on Friday, having been priced at par a day earlier. Powerlong Real Estate Holdings' 2021 bonds were bid at 95.8 on Tuesday, having been priced at 99.204 on April 10. China SCE Property Holdings' three-year non-call two bonds priced on April 10 were issued at par, but were bid last week at 96.9. There was no indication that these issuers relied on
Frances Yoon
JP Morgan, Nomura join China JV queue
JP Morgan and Nomura have set their sights on new securities joint ventures in China, adding to a renewed push among international banks following an easing of restrictions in the mainland. China's securities regulator said last week it had received applications from the two banks. Nomura said it was currently discussing the details with the relevant parties and declined to comment on the identity of the bank's partners or the licences it will be applying for. JP Morgan previously held a 33.3% stake in a securities JV before agreeing to sell its stake to its partner, First Capital Securities in 2016. JP Morgan declined to comment. The latest moves come shortly after the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued new rules on foreign investment in securities companies following a public consultation earlier this year. The new rules came into effect on April 28 and allow foreign investors to own a majority stake, for now a maximum of 51%, in their securities JVs. The regulator said it would gradually expand the business scope of securities JVs. The final rules have been almost universally welcomed by global banks, which have long complained about previous regulations that capped their ownership at 49% and left their JV partners in control of key licences. Shortly after the new rules were published, UBS became the first bank to lodge an application with the securities regulator to increase its stake to 51%. UBS holds a 24.99% stake in its JV, UBS Securities. The other shareholders are Beijing Guoxiang Asset Management (33%), Guangdong Provincial Communication Group (14.01%), China Guodian Capital (14%) and COFCO (14%). UBS declined to provide details on which of its partners would be divesting their stakes. Founder Securities also said last week it was liaising with the regulator about changes to the shareholding of its JV with Credit Suisse, without providing further details. Several other banks said they expect to follow suit. "We have had an agreement in place for several years now with our partner to raise our shareholding to 51% or more when the regulations allow us to do so", one banker said. "There is some legal work to be done before we can file an application and we are also seeking clarification from the CSRC on a couple of issues, but I expect this to be resolved soon." STOP-START EXPANSION Nomura is poised to become the first Japanese bank to launch a securities JV in China, although it has long courted the prospect. Nomura's chief executive Koji Nagai said in December the brokerage had been studying the prospect for some time and wanted to be first in the queue. Nomura has had a tough time expanding outside Japan in recent years. Last month, it said its overseas division recorded a pre-tax loss for 2017, reversing a gain a year earlier that had marked the Japanese bank's first overseas profit in seven years. Despite the relaxed regulations, global banks looking to break into the Chinese market face further hurdles. JV securities firms are typically barred from competing with their domestic partners, leaving the partnership shut out of a particular area of the country or particular business lines. JP Morgan reportedly walked away from its previous JV due to frustrations over lack of control, although its CEO Jamie Dimon has made no secret of the bank's intention to re-enter the market. IFR has reported JP Morgan was looking to set up a new JV with a majority stake, most likely in Shanghai. CHINA'S DECISION The new rules give the CSRC a large amount of discretion over the global firms that qualify for a majority stake. Foreign investors must have a good reputation, clean track record and earnings that rank among the world's top financial institutions. A second consultation, published on March 30, has raised concerns over how many offshore investors can pass the test. The proposals include a stipulation that controlling shareholders must have a net asset value of at least Rmb100bn. In addition, the shareholding of no
Thomas Blott
Aussie majors shrug off scandals
Australia's major banks received a welcome vote of confidence last week as global investors snapped up US$4.25bn of new bonds from Westpac and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, ignoring the sector's reputational battering at home. On Tuesday, Westpac raised US$3bn from a four-part SEC-registered sale, with joint bookrunners Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Westpac's own syndication team reporting no mention of the highly critical and ongoing Royal Commission, which has alleged widespread misconduct across the industry. Bonds and CDS levels for the major banks have barely reacted to recent scathing headlines, and the first offshore trade since the start of the Royal Commission went "almost boringly well", according to a lead manager, with little or no new issue concession over Westpac's US curve. "This was a terrific deal, in line with typical Aussie bank trades in the US, as domestic scandals failed to register in terms of investor pushback or even comment," he said. Two days later ANZ, also rated Aa3/AA–/AA–, issued US$1.25bn of dual-tranche three-year 144A/Reg S notes that paid a modest 2bp new issue concession over its 2.75% January 2021s. The local bond market also appears unfazed by the scandals, with National Australia Bank able to price a A$2.7bn (US$2.02bn) multi-tranche three and five-year deal on Tuesday without any problems, although a sterner test is likely to come in Europe, where investor appetite for non ECB repo-eligible Antipodean bonds is notoriously more fickle. The success of the Westpac and ANZ transactions does not mean Australian banks are in the clear as far as future bond pricing is concerned. Earnings growth prospects are muted as new regulatory controls are imposed and ratings downgrades are a possibility. Fitch last week revised the outlook on its AA– rating for Commonwealth Bank of Australia to negative from stable after the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority released a withering report on the culture of the country's largest bank that led to alleged money-laundering violations. "Management's focus may divert from ongoing operations and a likely cost increase might manifest in a weaker financial profile and franchise," Fitch said. S&P, meanwhile, maintained its Australian bank ratings despite the Royal Commission highlighting "a number of weaknesses in relation to the banks' governance and risk management". A greater and regularly mooted potential threat to the mortgage-reliant Australian banking sector is a full blown housing crisis. However, the two required catalysts seen triggering any sharp downturn, higher interest rates and/or rapidly rising unemployment, remain a long way off, according to local analysts. TIGHT PRICING Westpac's US$500m of 3.05% two-year and US$1bn of 3.65% five-year bonds were priced 55bp and 85bp wide of Treasuries as the lead managers were able to move 15bp and 10bp in from 70bp area and 95bp area initial price talk. This resulted in zero and 6bp new issue concessions versus its January 2021s and January 2023s. The US$750m of two-year and US$750m of five-year floating-rate notes were priced at three-month Libor plus 28bp and 72bp, respectively. The combined order book reached US$7.1bn, with demand skewed towards the two-year paper, reflecting the greater relative returns on offer there following recent yield curve flattening. Westpac chose a two-year rather than the typical three-year tenor for its latest short-dated offering because the bank has relatively few maturities in 2020 compared with its hefty 2021 redemption schedule. ANZ's three-year notes attracted more than US$2.5bn of orders, which enabled joint leads ANZ, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley to price a US$500m 3.3% fixed-rate 3(a)(2) bond issue well inside high 70s initial price thoughts at Treasuries plus 65bp. A US$750m 144A/Reg S floater came 46bp wide of three-month Libor. American investor demand is traditionally supported by the pick-up the Aussie majors offer over
Vulnerable Indonesia hopes for Samurai return
The Republic of Indonesia has conducted meetings in April ahead of a possible return to the Samurai bond market, two sources said, just as global investors have cooled on Indonesian bonds in other currencies. A deal may come in the near future, given that Indonesia is a regular issuer in yen and last issued Samurai bonds almost a year ago, on May 31 2017. However, the marketing schedule and pricing date have yet to be finalised as market conditions are not necessarily favourable. Indonesia has been affected by a global sell-off that has rocked emerging markets around the world. The strengthening US dollar, rising Treasury yields and renewed fiscal stresses in Argentina and Turkey have sent funds in search of safer assets, leading to heavy outflows from EM bond funds. "The weakness that we see in Indonesia is more a function of the broader sell-off in emerging markets," said Jack McIntyre, portfolio manager for global fixed income strategies at Brandywine Global. "Indonesia has not been hit more than any other emerging market. The US dollar is undergoing a counter-trend move, and emerging markets are getting swept up in the profit-taking cycle." The rupiah on Tuesday hit its lowest against the dollar since December 2015, while the Jakarta stock index fell to its weakest in a year. Suahasil Nazara, head of Indonesia's fiscal policy office, said the government would wait until markets stabilise before selling bonds in foreign currencies, according to a Reuters report. The last Samurai offering, led by Mizuho, Nomura and SMBC Nikko, raised ¥100bn (US$911m) from three, five and seven-year notes. This was Indonesia's first standalone public offering in over 30 years, following a series of issues under a guarantee from Japan Bank for International Cooperation and then through private placements. Indonesia has been a hot favourite among international bond investors lately, but sentiment weakened in recent weeks, at home and abroad. "It is one of the few emerging markets in Asia to run a current account deficit," said Brandywine's McIntyre. "In periods of market stress, investors tend to focus on countries with current account deficits first." McIntyre said that Brandywine, an affiliate of Legg Mason, was still long on Indonesia and took a constructive view. The rout is making it harder for Indonesian issuers to access the offshore capital markets. State-owned power utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara started meetings on April 26 ahead of a potential offering of US dollar bonds and/or offshore rupiah bonds, but has yet to come to market. PLN's 2027 bonds have dropped almost four points to a cash price of 91 since the mandate was announced on April 25, according to Tradeweb.
Asia, Emerging Markets
Daniel Stanton, Takahiro Okamoto
Japan US$1.5trn fund move set to shake up bond market
GPIF, Japan's biggest pension fund, with over ¥162trn (US$1.47trn) under management, has opened the door to junk-rated domestic bond investments, in a move that is expected to broaden the Japanese debt capital market. For bonds issued by entities other than the government and municipalities, GPIF's domestic fixed-income investments have until now been limited to securities rated Triple B or higher. The revised guidelines, however, add the phrase "this is not the case if there is a reasonable reason and GPIF approves it in advance", indicating GPIF can invest in lower-rated bonds. S&P said in a report last week that GPIF's inclusion of domestic high-yield bonds in its investment portfolio could be a first step towards greater diversification in Japan's corporate bond market. "GPIF began its investment in high-yield bonds in 2015, but its high-yield investment has been limited to foreign bonds while its investment in domestic bonds was limited to those rated BBB– or above," it said. Now that GPIF has added domestic high-yield bonds to its investment universe, S&P believes Japan may be able to cultivate a high-yield bond market and broaden the domestic issuer base, if GPIF's decision triggers other market participants to take action. In response to the move, asset managers hired by GPIF are likely to relax the credit rating limits on their domestic bond investments. "There is no doubt the GPIF move will be a 'trigger' for investors to relax the ratings limits," said a fund manager at a Japanese asset management company. "A similar impact was already seen in ESG investments," he said, referring to the fact that environmental, social and corporate governance-focused investments in Japan are now growing faster in equities than in fixed income because GPIF last year allocated 3% of its Japanese equity portfolio (about ¥1trn) to passive investments tracking ESG indices it selected. Bankers, however, were sceptical about the prospects of imminent expansion of the Japanese high-yield market, but do expect asset managers to buy bonds rated BBB even more aggressively. A syndicate banker at a domestic securities firm said GPIF's asset managers were still reluctant to invest in BBB rated bonds, even though their mandate allowed them to do so, suggesting that GPIF's revised criteria may encourage them to move down the curve. Others think the initial reaction will be slow. "Everyone is now interested in non-investment grade, but I think it will take time [to break the BBB barrier]," said another domestic syndicate banker. "If an issuer rated BB but very well-known issues bonds successfully, other people would start to follow, and that way a high-yield market would grow in a step-by-step manner." Some may ask whether a high-yield bond market exists in Japan. According to a report published by Japanese rating agency R&I in June 2017, only six of 607 companies were rated BB or lower. At the end of April, Sharp and Toshiba were among the few rated BB or lower, having both been rated investment grade a few years ago. Of course, this does not mean most of Japanese companies are investment-grade equivalent. Many firms raise funds by issuing stock or borrowing from banks, and do not issue bonds or obtain credit ratings. Developing a high-yield bond market in Japan could require a shift in mindset for companies rated BB to move from selling equity to issuing debt.
Takahiro Okamoto

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Game changer — Pope Francis and the Russian Patriarch: Sisci
Por João | 8 fev, 2016 | Mundo, Religião | 0 |
BY FRANCESCO SISCI on FEBRUARY 5, 2016
BEIJING–The Vatican rocked the world Friday with news that Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow will meet in Havana, Cuba on Feb. 12 in a historic exchange loaded with symbolism.
Kirill is the spiritual leader of over 150 million Russian Orthodox faithful who represent about half of the 300 million estimated adherents of the Eastern Orthodox Church worldwide. Kirill is a religious force behind Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose political views are often at loggerheads with western countries.
Pope Francis arrives for a special audience at the Vatican
The Roman Catholic Pope, on the other hand, is the leader of the largest unitary religion of the world with some 1.2 billion people. He represents a spiritual office that played a key role in the Cold War against the atheistic and anti-religious front of the communist bloc. Yet the Cold War is long over, and the global world view has changed completely.
The Catholic Church, at this juncture, hasn't ranged itself against any single world leader and appears to be a force willing to lead anyone that will follow her, Moreover, it is busy designing a specific approach to "geopolitics," says Antonio Spadaro writing in the the Jesuit publication La Civiltà Cattolica on Feb. 13 (La diplomazia di Francesco. La misericordia come processo politico). His viewpoint offers a critical window on papal thinking notes Italian Vatican expert Gianni Valente, since the Jesuit publication is reviewed by the Vatican Secretariat of State.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow
The Russian Orthodox Church has been separated from Rome for centuries, following a rift between the Vatican and Constantinople over an obscure and complex theological issue in the 12th century. For its part, Moscow has always styled itself as the third Rome, an heir of the Byzantine Empire, which fell to the Muslim Turks in 1453. By Russian lights, Rome has traditionally been considered tricky and invasive after a very uneasy collaboration during the Crusades that ended with the sack of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204.
What's more, behind the theology there has always been the issue of Christian politics. Who should lead world Christianity? Should it be the pope in Rome, fully independent, or Constantinople with the patriarch and Byzantine emperor over him?
Ties between the two churches improved greatly in the last century after Russia fell to communism in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Rome threw its support behind the Russian Orthodox Church during the Soviet era. But with the collapse of the Soviet empire in the late 1980s, such support became fragmented. Polish Catholics became involved in Russian Orthodox matters, while the new non-communist leaders in Moscow leaders looked to its indigenous church for political support.
There were insensitivities on both sides. Russians perceived a spiritual and political invasion on the Polish side in their religious affairs. This tore apart a bond with Rome that had been carefully sewn during decades of tight, underground collaboration.
This is why a meeting in Cuba later this month between the Pope and the Patriarch is fraught with religious and political significance. It signals that the two churches want religious reconciliation. This reconciliation ignores old Cold War political boundaries. Cuba is Catholic. But the island nation is still officially communist, with good ties with Russia and political pledges with officially communist China. The Pope has also played a pivotal role in improving relations between Havana and Washington. The meeting between Francis and Kirill, therefore, is intended as a religious and political signal for peace that's not directed against any side or person.
Francesco Sisci (left) interviews Pope Francis at the Vatican with papal staffers.
The move resembles the occasion in late January when the Pope met Iran's political and spiritual leader Hassan Rouhani in Rome, or when he gave an interview on China to this columnist who works for the Hong Kong-based website Asia Times.
The Pope clearly wants to change the old game of geopolitics that bloodied the last century with the two ideological wars — against fascism and communism. He rejects the so-called Yalta logic at the end of World War II, as he defined it in our interview, of carving up the world as if it were a cake, in different slices. He desires a world that is "a cake that grows bigger for everybody to share." This must be based on respect (with capital "R," as he said) for different civilizations and cultures, where "the Church has great potential to receive culture."
It is also here that all criticisms of the Pope for pursuing a normalization of diplomatic ties with China or failing to raise issues of religious freedom in China or Iran, misses a larger point. Pope Francis seems to want something much more far reaching: To change the logic of geopolitics that dominated the world in the 20thcentury.
No more blocs pitted against the other. No more ideologies — masked at times as religions — in which one confronts the other. In its place he favors a constant search for a common ground based on dialogue, mercy for one another, respect for different cultures and civilizations, and human empathy for others' sufferings. He thus ignores boundaries of religion and wants to reach out to all people Christians, Muslims, and through his recent interview, the Chinese.
The Pope seeks to do this by lowering the political status of Rome, as "headquarters" of the Catholic Church. But his spiritual outreach to the world confers a new centrality to the Bishop of Rome as the driver of a new global equilibrium. Here the Pope no longer follows say, the Holy Roman Emperor, as in the Middle Ages. Rather, he appears to be reaching out for a new catalyst role, as in the case of some popes during the Renaissance.
In those days, the Roman Church was bounded by Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. It was locked in a centuries-old conflict between Christianity and Islam. But the religious landscape has changed radically. It is now a world where half of its people are not heirs of the Biblical religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). On the fringes are the new millennial Satanists who disguise themselves as Muslims or extremists of different stripes. There are, for example, the pseudo-Hindus who lynch Muslims or Christians in India. There are the pseudo-Buddhists lynching Muslims in Burma.
At the same time, the current century has eased some institutional pressures. The church no longer carries the burden of the so-called Pontiff State which for centuries had confused Rome's spiritual and political ambitions. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Pontiff State ensured Rome's independence against the Byzantine emperor.
In 2016, the balance of power in the world and the tiny Vatican state are sufficient enough to guarantee the religious independence of the Roman Church, which has no invasive political ambitions and wants to play a positive role for peace in the world. The Obama administration, along with the Cuban government, has already recognized the Pope's role. Moscow also appears to be a willing partner with the scheduled meeting between Kirill and the Pope in Havana later this month. There are similar signals in the Muslim world with the Pope's meeting with Rouhani, and in China, where the Pope's Asia Times interview enjoyed unprecedented coverage in the local press.
The pontiff is filling a political and spiritual vacuum in a world that has far deeper divisions than the long-dead triumphalist mercantile rhetoric of the past cared to see. He is facing reality, and the reality is very strong. This Pope is a realist, who knows that reality must first be taken for what it is before any effort can be made to change it. The strength of his approach should be measured by the almost effortless success he has enjoyed in pursuing his aims after only two years in the pontificate.
This is a game changer and those who fail to see it might as well be steamrolled by it.
Francesco Sisci is a Senior Research Associate of China Renmin University. The author of Asia Times' Sinograph column, he was also Asia Editor for the Italian daily La Stampa and Beijing correspondent for Il Sole di 24 Ore, and has written for numerous Italian and international publications. He was the first foreigner admitted to the graduate program of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, he is the author of eight books on China and a frequent commentator on CCTV.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Asia Times.
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Anime and Real Life, Finding The Colours of Nagasaki: An Oculus-Powered Armchair Journey of Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara
10 Comments Posted by infinitezenith on January 20, 2022
"Without black, no colour has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there's shadow – no, not just shadow, but fullness. You've got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that's real." –Amy Grant
Fireworks fill the sky of Nagasaki in August 2078 – it's a beautiful evening, and the skyline below is barely recognisable from its 2018 counterpart. However, Hitomi Tsukishiro is about to head back sixty years with help from her grandmother, Kohaku. After Hitomi developed achromatopsia, she became unable to see the world in colours and fell into a depression. Kohaku believes her teenaged self will be able to help Hitomi find happiness anew and so, has opted to send her back in time using magic, a power which runs in the Tsukishiro family. When Hitomi opens her eyes, she finds herself in a world sixty years earlier. While nowhere nearly as well-developed as she knows it, Hitomi finds that the Nagasaki of 2018 is a bustling city of around four hundred thousand people. In this older time, Hitomi ends up befriending members of the photography and art club, along with her grandmother; sharing time with each of the younger Kohaku, Yuito, Asagi, Kurumi, Shō and Chigusa helps Hitomi to rediscover the magic in her life, allowing her to find colours in her world anew. It is in Nagasaki that the events of 2018's Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara (The World in Colours from here on out) are set. Nagasaki sports the unfortunate distinction being one of two cities in the world to have ever been devastated by an atomic attack in 1945. On August 9, the plutonium bomb was detonated over the city, instantly killing some thirty-five thousand people. Nagasaki was slowly rebuilt after the Second World War. Reconstruction only really began a year after the bombings, with a particular emphasis on transforming the former military city into a centre of commercial ship-building, trade and fishing. By 1949, redevelopment accelerated with the passing of the Nagasaki International Culture City Reconstruction Law, and thanks to the efforts directed towards reconstruction, the Nagaski we know forms the backdrop for Hitomi's own journey. It is here that magic and the mundane intertwine – in The World in Colours, the ability to control magic is a trait that women in the Tsukishiro family share, and Hitomi had shut her powers away after her mother had left the family. Unlike P.A. Works' previous anime, The World in Colours places magic at the series forefront, treating it as another skill that can create joy for others, rather than something that brings about miracles. While Nagasaki isn't a particularly magical city (being better known for its temples and museums), The World in Colours' commitment to realism means that the anime is able to tell a particularly compelling story: bringing Nagasaki to life means being able to convince viewers that magic is very much a reality, even if it cannot manifest as the phenomenon that Kohaku and Hitomi can master.
Because The World in Colours is a story filled with magic and witchcraft, it makes sense to open the post with a virtual visit to the Forest Witch Café, which forms the inspiration for the Tsukishiro magic shop that Hitomi lodges at. In reality, the Forest Witch Café is located some twenty-seven kilometres away from the heart of Nagasaki. The restaurant is named for its location in the forest. The owners take pride in using home-grown ingredients in their dishes: vegetables come straight from their garden, and their curry is a favourite amongst patrons.
A quick glance at Forest Witch Café's menu finds a wonderful variety of dishes: their lunch special is only 1650 Yen, featuring a salad fresh from their garden and homemade chicken confit, soup, a choice of house curry or pasta and a dessert, plus coffee. This is only available with a reservation. For visitors looking to do dinner, courses start at 3500 Yen. Similarly, there's also a handful of coffees and sweets available for those seeking a pit stop. Besides this delightful café, which forms the backdrop for the Tsukishiro magic shop, Forest Witch Café also does tarot fortune telling, as well. In real life, there's also a small shop behind the café that sells Witch-themed trinkets and goods: Owing to its location, visitors will need to take a few buses or rent a car to reach this café, which, compared to the rest of the locations in this post, is quite out-of-the way.
In The World in Colours, the house behind the magic shop is where the Tsukishiros live. Hitomi has numerous memories of spending time with Kohaku here, and According to Kohaku's grandmother, their house was built in 2017 (the same year my new place was built) Inspection of satellite imagery finds that the Tsukishiro residence looks nothing like its counterpart in The World in Colours, but this is unsurprising, since actual character residences are usually custom-designed to fit with the story's requirements.
Back when The World in Colours was airing, the one location I had confidence in locating was Megami Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge that takes route 51 over Nagasaki Bay. Completed in 2005, the bridge's main span is 480 metres in length, and is beautifully illuminated by nightfall. The World in Colours had the Magic-Photography-and-Art Club attempt to catch a ferry passing underneath for a unique photo, and while they fail, the evening is a memorable one, typifying the journey that this anime had sought to convey.
Being the only cable-stayed bridge in the immediate area, finding Megami Bridge alone didn't offer me with much to write about. However, last September, I was looking to do a location hunt for The World in Colours after utilising the Oculus Quest to identify and share locations within the anime that I'd previously watched. The premise behind these location hunts is simple enough: I can't put boots on the ground right now owing to the global health crisis, but Google Street View is extensive enough for me to visit mundane, ordinary spots such as these.
Armed with a combination of 3D photogrammetry data and full immersion offered by a powerful VR headset, I found that it was possible to locate things with a much greater confidence than before, since the VR environment allowed me to quickly look around and orient myself. BY comparison, using Street View on a desktop computer or tablet is more limiting. In this way, I was able to make progress in finding the same streets that Hitomi and Kohaku hit during their time together in The World in Colours: by looking around for landmarks, I was able to define a starting point. This spot, for instance, was located after I found Izumokinrin Park and began looking for landmarks like Ōura Elementary School, which is visible on the hill in the right hand side.
To start off such a journey, I began by using Google Maps' 3D photogrammetry data to explore areas near Megami Bridge, and in a curious turn of fate, one location caught my eye: Mount Nabekanmuri Park. This is the spot Hitomi visits in 2078 during the finale, being the place she and Yuito shared thoughts together away from the more rowdy and energetic crowd that is the Magic-Photography-and-Arts Club. To my surprise, just across the valley is the spot where Yuito shares his drawings with a curious Hitomi: Izumokinrin Park. Closer inspection of the park finds the same pavilion and amphitheater that forms the site of where Kohaku performs the complex bit of magic to send Hitomi back into the future.
A search for high schools in the area, near Izumokinrin Park, finds exactly one candidate whose exterior matches the high school Hitomi and Kohaku attend perfectly: this is Nagasaki Minami High School, which is only a stone's throw from Izumokinrin Park. True to reality, the school seen in The World in Colours has the same statue and clock near its front. The World in Colours shows the high school both as it appeared in 2018, as well as again in 2078 – the school itself was opened in 1961, so by the events of The World in Colours, the school would've likely undergone several renovations to remain in full operations even a full 117 years later.
Nagasaki Minami High School can be seen on the hill here: tracing the path the Magic-Photography-Arts Club take, I was able to find this spot without too much trouble. I'm always fond of still like these: the mirror, railings, yellow house and utility pole in both the anime and real-life versions match up pretty closely. While such spots are easy enough to find after locating the landmark, The World in Colours presented me with another challenge. Kohaku and the others are fond of taking side routes down flights of stairs that line the hills of Nagasaki.
There are a lot of narrow streets in Nagasaki, and even more stairwells cutting up and down the steep slopes, but Google Street View doesn't go down these paths, so the steps that everyone uses as shortcuts are something that I wasn't able to replicate in my Oculus-powered travels – as one would reasonably expect, the Oculus Quest is not the magic bullet solution for replacing travel outright. However, owing to current circumstance, the ability to almost wander the streets of Nagasaki with the same freedom as I would in reality is a welcome one.
To my great surprise, the park that the Magic-Photography-and-Art Club visit during The World in Colours' sixth episode is actually within walking distance of their high school. This is Glover Garden, an open-air museum that showcases Nagasaki's western-style buildings. The most famous of these is the Former Glover House, which belonged to Scottish merchant Thomas Glover, who would later play a role in overthrowing the Tokugawa Shogunate, kicking off the Meiji Restoration. Glover Garden most closely resembles Calgary's Heritage Park in that many of the buildings here were relocated from other parts of the city, and there's a 620 Yen admission fee to the site.
Yuito is shown to be working at the Jiyu-tei Café and Teahouse, which is located in Glover Garden's grounds. Open from 0930 to 1715, Jiyu-tei Café and Teahouse is known for its ambience and Castella, a Japanese sponge cake that Nagasaki is particularly well-known for. According to their website, Jiyu-tei offers Castella sets with seasonal drinks, although they do have cake and ice cream on their menu, along with a solid selection of hot and iced teas and coffees. Visitors report friendly service and love the ambience: altogether, one would probably find this to be a fantastic place to take someone on a date.
It suddenly strikes me that as a result of location hunting for anime, and as a result of looking around town for restaurants, I've amassed a reasonable knowledge of places nearby, including those that could prove quite romantic. In Nagasaki, Glover Park seems like a great place for a first date. The bridge that Kohaku crosses near Nagasaki Seaside Park, on the other hand, is a little more mundane, being something seen en route to a date – there are actually a pair of these bridges, and the one Kohaku crosses is the further one from Route 499, whereas here, I'm only able to see the first of the bridges. This is a case of "close enough", since I wasn't able to find a way of getting closer, but fortunately, the bridges are similar enough so that readers should be convinced that P.A. Works also replicated this spot with their usual attention to detail.
This particular spot offers an unparalleled view of Nagasaki's skyline: it is located near Ōura Elementary School, not more than a quarter-kilometre from the Glover Garden. The stunning nightscape reminds me a great deal of the hill where Stuttgart's House R128 is located: this house is well-known for being a modernist home capable of fulfilling its energy requirements and possesses an open floor concept: the only closed rooms in the house are the bathrooms. I've long had a fascination with this style of living: the open concept exposes the house to nature, and by night, the Stuttgart cityscape can be seen.
When I first finished watching The World in Colours, I had no idea as to where the walkway that Kohaku was running along was located: I still recall how in a similar frame during one of my The World in Colours posts, I only remarked that the site looked photorealistic. This time around, because I had found numerous of the landmarks in Nagasaki for, I was able to determine that this walkway is a part of Glover Sky Road, which consists of a covered escalator similar to Central Mid-Level escalators in Hong Kong, which is the world's longest outdoor covered escalator.
Glover Sky Road is the best way to reach Glover Garden if one were approaching from the east end, and this escalator system is something that locals also appreciate, making it much easier to get around: this project was built to increase accessibility in Nagasaki, and was the first of its kind in Nagasaki. Like Hong Kong's Central Mid-Level Escalator, Glover Sky Road has since become something of a local attraction, offering visitors with a brilliant view of Nagasaki's cityscape.
Here at the intersection where Hitomi and Yuito see one another off, the Former Mitsubishi No. 2 Dock House can be seen to the left. Featuring high ceilings, coal-fired fireplaces and large windows, this building was constructed in 1896 as a dormitory for sailors. In 1972, it was relocated to its current site, and presently houses an exhibit on Nagasaki's shipyards; shipbuilding has been an integral part of Nagasaki's economy, alongside heavy industry.
After Hitomi and Yuito part ways, Hitomi prepares to make her way down Glover Sky Road and return home. The Tsukishiro home and magic shop is a central location in The World in Colour, and were such a site to be real, it would certainly be worth visiting: the magic shop is filled with luminescent jars of star-sand that exude a gentle, calming glow, and the Tsukishiro residence is smartly designed. In particular, Hitomi and Kohaku's rooms are separated by a circular opening, allowing the two to open up to one another without exposing themselves wholly, mirroring how Kohaku takes things with Hitomi one step at a time.
There's also a skylight in the Tsukishiro residence that gives Hitomi a beautiful view of Nagsaki's nightscape and harbour. Initially, this spot comes to act as a refuge of sorts for Hitomi, representing a distant vantage point that emphasises her removal from the world. As Hitomi grows closer to the Magic-Photography-Art Club, she begins to tread the streets of Nagasaki with the others, signifying a better connection to the world around her. Here, Yuito and Hitomi head down Ringer Street, adjacent to Ōura Elementary School.
This intersection is located down Oda-Kaigan Dori near Nagasaki Seaside Park. Owing to the lack of Street View coverage down here, I wasn't able to capture the places where Hitomi and Shō visited together; while ostensibly for club activities, Shō had taken a liking to Hitomi and this was a bit of a date of sorts. Chigusa and Kurumi also spend time together here while Kurumi waits for her older sister to arrive. Despite lacking the imagery, given that The World in Colour faithfully renders things like the intersection, it is not inconceivable that P.A. Works would've taken the time to ensure the park in The World in Colours was true to its real-world counterpart, as well.
A little further down the road, the Nagasaki Harbour Medical Centre can be seen, along with line 5 of the Nagasaki Electric Tramway. The tramway has a lengthy history and was opened in 1915 and is the only tramway in Japan to have retained all of its original lines: despite an adult fare of 130 Yen, the company remains profitable, and The World in Colour has the Magic-Photography-Arts Club utilising public transit quite frequently, allowing me to follow it and locate other areas of interest.
One such spot is Oranda Bridge crossing a tributary of the Nakashima River, where Kohaku wonders if feelings for Yuito might be the cause of Hitomi's colour vision intermittently returning. To the right, the Juhachiginko Head Office building can be seen, and the building on the left houses Gibraltar Life Insurance. The Nagasaki Electric Tramway Line 1 runs along this road, so following it using VR allowed me to find this spot. While other sites, such as Like a Fish in Water, utilise Japanese social media and bloggers from Hatena to do the heavy lifting for them, my location hunt posts depend entirely on the technology available to me.
As such, finding a spot entails locating landmarks, putting the Oculus Quest headset on and "walking" around until I locate the area of interest, based purely on my estimates of where something is using hints from the anime. The process is quite tiring, and in order to avoid eyestrain, I limit my sessions to a quarter-hour at a time. For this post, locations were a ways more obscure than usual, so it took a lot of wandering over a lot of hours to find everything, such as this spot in a quiet neighbourhood near Shiiko Park. Altogether, it took around 20 hours spaced out since September to actually locate enough spots of interest, which is why this post is only out now.
The last spot I'll cover in this location hunt is the observation platform at Mount Nabekanmuri Park: because The World in Colours had Yuito and Hitomi visit an observation point where the Megami Bridge was visible, I ended up doing a search to see which places in Nagasaki would offer such a view. This was the spot I would use as a starting point for my location hunt using the Oculus Quest, and I decided to save it for last because the views up here are spectacular. Although the ascent can be a little difficult for some, visitors generally report that it is well worth it.
With this VR-powered location hunt in the books, I'm glad to have taken the effort of treading through The World in Colours' locations. While certainly all of the locations possible, being able to nonetheless see iconic spots in The World in Colours using the Oculus Quest and Wander, without having to board a plane and put boots on the ground, speaks volumes to what's possible with this technology. With the location hunt for one of director Toshiya Shinohara's signature anime in the books, I remark that I've got another location hunt coming up in under a week while I'm on a roll with finding places in anime.
The World in Colours represented a very unique challenge with respect to location hunting – previously, I'd used the Oculus Quest in rural areas with great success, but urban areas were intimidating because the sheer amount of streets and structures would make it considerably more difficult to locate points of interest. This is because when location hunting, I typically start with a landmark, and then use the characters' preferred modes of transportation to determine where other sites are. If characters typically walk, I'll know to determine which streets provide the easiest path to their next destination. Similarly, characters taking the train means seeking out their destination station and then exploring nearby areas. In rural areas, like those of Yamanashi, or smaller urban areas like Kawagoe, this isn't a challenge because the search area is smaller. Google Maps has improved dramatically over the years, and an increasing amount of regions on Earth now have 3D data available, so using a combination of 3D photogrammetry data and the Oculus Quest is usually sufficient to pinpoint the spots seen in an anime. However, after a city becomes large enough, these techniques become more time-consuming, and limitations in map data also preclude certain areas from being visited. In The World in Colours, for instance, Hitomi and the others often take narrow stairwells connecting streets together, and these paths are simply inaccessible in the Oculus Quest. However, on the flipside, even in a city as large as Nagasaki, the old techniques still work: locating the park where Kohaku and the others prepared to send Hitomi back to 2078 was the breakthrough moment, and after this game-changer, I determined that most of the areas of interest would likely be walkable (i.e. within 3 kilometres). From this point onwards, I ended up identifying several key areas seen in the anime simply by strolling the streets using the Oculus Quest, and ultimately, I accumulated enough spots to do a discussion on the locations seen in The World in Colours. In this way, the combination of sophisticated technology, prior experience in location hunting and a little bit of patience has allowed me to identify the same spots that Hitomi visits with the Magic-Photography-and-Arts Club during her time in 2018. The end result is that, should I ever decide to plan a trip to Nagasaki in the future, I wouldn't have much trouble in finding the locations to an anime that had deeply moved me when I'd first watched it. However, for the time being, any trip to Nagasaki (or Japan, for that matter) remains a hypothetical, and consequently, I am glad that we are at a point where it is possible to do the next best thing from the comfort of an armchair – walk the virtual streets of Nagasaki using the Oculus Quest.
Anime Location Hunts, Japanese Animation, Oculus Quest Location Hunts Anime, Anime Location Hunts, anime pilgrimage, From the Color-Changing World's Tomorrow, Iroduku: The World in Colors, Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara, Japan, Japanese Animation, location hunt
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10 responses to "Anime and Real Life, Finding The Colours of Nagasaki: An Oculus-Powered Armchair Journey of Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara"
Michael E Kerpan January 20, 2022 at 19:09
For me, one of the greatest pleasures of watching anime (especially slice of life) is the ability to re-visit places my wife and I have actually been (or want to visit but have not yet gotten to). The often meticulous location depiction amazes me (given how shoddy most American shows are in this respect — even when they are ostensibly set in real life places). It really gives us a thrill to see something we remember (almost always with affection). And it is fun to visit new places– like Takagi-san's Shodoshima — and try to trace where things happen.
Great work on your Irodoku tour of Nagasaki (where we spent 3 days). I really wish Irodoku could get the traction it deserves — as I find it probably the most satisfying "young witch in training show" of any I have watched.
If I may, Flying Witch is another one of those shows with young Witches learning their craft, although it tends towards being a iyashikei rather than a coming-of-age story like The World in Colours. Having said this, both shows are rather under-valued in the community and definitely do deserve a bit more exposure. Furthermore, Flying Witch is set in the Hirosaki area of Aomori, which I previously did a location hunt for many years back!
That anime go through such lengths to present these vividly detailed worlds is something I similarly enjoy and appreciate: from a thematic perspective, it gives the feeling that there is the extraordinary in the ordinary, and the sights we pass by day-to-day might be host to some wonderful adventures, too. This is what led me to want to visit Japan to begin with: after finishing Tamayura a decade earlier, I'd longed to put boots on the ground in Takehara for myself. That dream is within arm's reach right now, so I'm just letting things in life settle down before I action a trip I've been wanting to do for ten years. Similarly, I can see how watching anime can bring back pleasant memories of travel. I'm nowhere nearly as well-traveled as you (having been out of grad school for "only" five-and-a-half years), but I've also had the pleasure of seeing places I visited during my 2017 trip reproduced in Yuru Camp△ 2 🙂
Flying Witch is a lovely show too. I feel it presents a more "credible" model for witch education than Kiki's Delivery Service (by a long shot). We never got to see anything in Hirosaki (except to change there for a train to Goshogowara — on our way to Tsugaru). We loved Aomori (and wished we could have seen the Nebuta Matsuri — rather than just a sampling of its floats on display) . 😉
Aomori seems far removed from the hustle and bustle of somewhere like Yokohama, so it is appropriate as the place for Makoto to be surrounded by nature for her witch training. In spite of this, there does appear to be quite a bit to see up in Aomori, too. Flying Witch did a wonderful job of showing some of these spots off, and perhaps in the future, you'll have a chance to visit 🙂
We definitely hope to return to Tohoku some day — including seeing more of Aomori.
I think I discovered this site because I was looking for more information on Irodoku — and you were just about the only person who had anything useful to say about it. 😉
The internet's pretty vast, and I'm confident there must be some other thoughts of Iroduku that capture the series' successes. If not, I suppose I'll hold the distinction of hosting the only positive review in the English-speaking world!
Ged Maybury June 22, 2022 at 05:27
Another anime to look out for. Looks deliciously detailed. Thx!
Re 'Locational Slewth-ing' well I LOVE doing it! (Or at least trying.) Ironically, and by chance, I found about 8 of these locations shortly before finding your blog. Good work, BTW!!
The toughest anime/manga by far is 'Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou' – but I've had some successes. Google Maps, always. I've yet to reach Japan.
infinitezenith June 24, 2022 at 19:01
Thank you for taking the time to read through and provide feedback! Location hunts are a very time-consuming practise that require a considerable amount of patience, but when it pays off, it pays off 🙂 I think that series that are set in more ordinary places within the city would be the toughest: it's easy to see how Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou could prove to be a challenge. Being in Japan would tend to help, too – I hope you will have a chance to visit in the future!
Oh: And I do notice that the animators – when out taking their location photos – always use a telephoto lens. This dramatically compresses, or draws closer, to the background scenery. I've noticed it in other animations too. Does it simplify the drawing, or is it to create the illusion of a more intimate world for the characters to inhabit? I'd love to know.
I think you've already got the answer; since the telephoto lens tends to make things in the background appear closer than they are, it would allow more of a scene to be shown while at once. In addition to making the backdrop seem closer to the characters, It feels like a way for animators to really strut their stuff and also bring a setting to life. Conversely, in a lot of the comparison posts I do, the angles captured by the Street View camera's fisheye tends to make everything look further away. The closeness you observe is especially apparent in these comparisons.


text:
Q: Создание программно БД и таблицу в C#. Ошибка: Data Source cannot be empty Хочу создать БД и таблицу в C#. БД - SQLite. Написал так:
        SQLiteConnection.CreateFile("D:\\data.db");
        string databaseName = @"D:\\data.db";
        SQLiteConnection connection = new SQLiteConnection(string.Format("Data Sourse={0};", databaseName));
        SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand("CREATE TABLE data ([text] char(1000) NOT NULL);", connection);
        connection.Open();
        command.ExecuteNonQuery();
        connection.Close();

Указывает на connection.Open(); ошибкой:
Data Source cannot be empty.  Use :memory: to open an in-memory database

Как это исправить?
A: У вас в строке:
SQLiteConnection connection = new SQLiteConnection(string.Format("Data Sourse={0};", databaseName));

написано

Data Sourse

а надо

Data Source

Неправильный синтаксис строки подключения.
UPDATED: ещё в некоторых случаях нужно указание версии в ConnectionString. Строка должна выглядеть полностью так:
SQLiteConnection connection = new SQLiteConnection(string.Format("Data Source={0}; Version=3;", databaseName));

P.S. Но вообще я скачал последний SQLite из репозитория NuGet и у меня всё без указания версии работает.
UPDATED 2: работающий код с библиотекой версии 1.0.83.0:
SQLiteConnection.CreateFile("D:\\data.db");
string databaseName = @"D:\\data.db";
SQLiteConnection connection = new SQLiteConnection(string.Format("Data Source={0}; Version=3;", databaseName));
SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand("CREATE TABLE data ([text] char(1000) NOT NULL);", connection);
connection.Open();
command.ExecuteNonQuery();
connection.Close();