Beleaguered Chinese town looks to bond sale

The city that shrank the most in China’s worst-performing province in 2015 has a pitch for dollar bond investors: Things are looking up. A local-government financing vehicle in Tieling, home to 3 million people in the northeastern province of Liaoning, plans to raise $200 million, partly to expand into finance businesses including leasing, according to Bloomberg. The funding unit’s core business hasn’t suffered from the slowing economy, and growth will recover next year, according to the person. Official data show the city’s economy shrank 6.2% last year. Financing units for China’s provinces, cities and towns are increasingly looking overseas amid a tightening of local funding channels, with bond issuance from junk-rated firms jumping 56% from October to $860 million this month.