Americas

The Province of Alberta made a rare appearance in the Kangaroo market on Wednesday, printing A$100m with a February 2046 bond. Daiwa Capital Markets ran the books.

Goldman Sachs is trying to steal a march on rivals as it looks to turbo-charge its European business by leading the listings of the region’s most vibrant start-ups, writes David Rothnie.

Morgan Stanley swung by the euro market this week to raise €1.75bn of new senior debt. The move was unexpected given that pricing for international issuers remains more favourable in dollars.

Cloopen Group Holding, a cloud-based communications provider, launched its New York Stock Exchange IPO on Wednesday night.

DCM bankers said that more Lat Am borrowers who postponed bond issues last year could be tempted into a welcoming market after customer relationship management (CRM) company Atento picked a strong day to refinance a 2022 maturity.

A highly diversified order book allowed the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) to tighten pricing on its first ever benchmark social bond on Wednesday, with the multilateral lender raising $500m of five-year money.

Fonplata, the South American supranational development bank, raised Sfr200m ($222m) of 5.5-year bonds in the Swiss franc market on Wednesday, increasing the size of the deal from an initially planned Sfr150m.

After receiving a strong response to a cash tender offer for its only previous international bond, Brazilian waterway logistics services provider Hidrovias do Brasil notched an eight times subscribed order book on its way to a $500m 10-year non-call five deal on Wednesday.

Mexican quasi-sovereign Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) offered little to no concession on its first 144A/Reg S deal since 2016 on Tuesday, attracting a broad range of investors to an order book that peaked above $10bn.

A set of investors owning more than 45% of a YPF bond maturing next month say they will not support the Argentine oil and gas company’s attempt to swap the notes for a combination of new senior secured bonds due in 2026 and cash — even after the issuer improved the offer on Monday. However, emboldened by the public support of a separate bondholder group, YPF responded late on Tuesday that investors should participate in the deal “with a view to contributing to the preservation of their investments”.

Global equity markets were propelled to new all-time highs at the end of last year when various drug companies announced that they were close to releasing vaccines to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. However, with the vaccine roll-out slow, new mutant variants of the virus raging and governments striking a sombre tone, investors need to prepare for the fact that they may have bought in haste.

Argentine government-owned oil and gas company YPF again sweetened the terms of an exchange for its 2021 bonds on Monday, increasing the cash portion of the swap in an effort to persuade creditors to switch into longer dated notes and thus avoid the risk of default.