A total of US$127.8 billion worth of club loans were arranged in Asia-Pacific outside of Japan in 2016, or a decline of 3.4% from the previous year. The amount also represented 27.6% of the total loans in the region, with syndicated deals accounting for the remainder of the volume.

Figures released by Thomson Reuters on February 20 show that the percentage of club deals falling below 30% in the region has not been seen since 2008 when club deals accounted for 29.2% of loan volume in Asia-Pacific. The increase in syndicated transactions could be attributed to the increase in demand in funding to back M&A financings in 2016.

Club-driven markets such as Australia and Hong Kong saw the volume of club deals fall at the expense of syndicated deals in 2016, at 25.7% and 15.2%, respectively. There were 15 so-called jumbo deals that closed in Australia in 2016, of which 11 were syndicated transactions and accounted for US$25.7 billion, or 35.2%, of the total Australian volume.

Four jumbo deals closed as clubs and attributed US$7.4 billion, or 10.1% to Australia’s loan volume, indicating that the average syndicated jumbo loan is more than three times larger than a jumbo club deal. A similar pattern was noted in Hong Kong, where the average size of a syndicated jumbo loan was nearly triple the size of club jumbo transactions.

Taiwan, China and India are the countries with the largest proportion of syndicated deals. Over 95% of the facilities were syndicated deals in Taiwan and were mainly used towards refinancing. Syndicated deals accounted for 88% in China and 69% in India and were used for infrastructure and debt repayment.