Market participants have been awaiting a new sovereign deal from China almost to the day since the launch of its last transaction nearly two years ago in December 1998. Numerous false dawns in the intervening period, however, had led many bankers to automatically dismiss recurrent rumours of the sovereign's return out of hand.
Yet this time round, bankers close to the government, agree that there is a 70% to 80% chance of a deal being printed, with November said to be the favoured month for launch. Certainly if the sovereign is to return this year, it will not want to repeat the mistake of its last deal, which...
