Americas

The coronavirus crisis, new challengers, technology and capital requirements threaten to shake up the banking sector — and banks are likely to shift business models substantially, according to management consultancy firm Arthur D Little.

Investment bankers have piled up heaps of revenue for their firms this year, but their employers may feel the need not to be too generous with bonuses in the first few months of next year.

The Dominican Republic refinanced the bulk of its 2021 bond maturities on Monday with a tap of its 12 year bonds that took international issuance from Latin American sovereigns to record annual volumes.

Barclays has invited holders of some of its legacy tier two bonds to exchange their notes for cash, as it looks to smarten up its debt capital structure.

Paraguayan beef exporter Frigorífico Concepción held calls with bond investors on Monday as it looks to tap its only international bond for the second time.

Chilean government-owned copper producer Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Chile) became the latest Latin American borrower to take advantage of rock-bottom bond yields to refinance existing debt at historically low yields.

Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Xpeng is selling a chunk of new American Depository Shares (ADS) to fund research and development and further expansion.

Bondholders overwhelmingly backed Suriname’s request for a debt standstill until at least the end of March, allowing the government to exit default. The sovereign is likely to use the payment holiday to begin negotiating a comprehensive debt restructuring.

European banks will have longer than expected to correct the fallback language in their dollar-denominated additional tier ones (AT1s), now that dollar Libor has been given an extra 18 months to live.

Standard & Poor’s cut Braskem Idesa’s credit rating from B+ to B on Friday, placing the rating on negative watch as the Mexican government’s termination of a gas transportation contract disrupted the polyethylene producer’s operations. The rating agency warned the company needs to address its gas supply shortage urgently, but some credit analysts eye a buying opportunity.

Latin American power generation company EnfraGen will look to sell $710m of split-rated 10 year senior secured notes this week, nearly three years after it postponed an earlier attempt at tapping bond markets.

Flutter Entertainment, the parent of bookies Paddy Power and Betfair, has returned to the equity capital markets with a £1.1bn share sale to finance its acquisition of a stake in FanDuel Group, the New York-based fantasy sports and online casino company.