Americas

Latin American DCM bankers hailed Brazilian paper company Klabin’s first sustainability-linked bond (SLB) as an encouraging sign for the ESG debt market in the region, as a huge order book allowed the issuer to tighten by 55bp from initial price thoughts and land well inside its curve.

Bankers said that Brazilian bank BTG Pactual achieved tighter pricing on its green bond than it would have done on a conventional bond, after it became the first Latin American private sector bank to issue such a benchmark in US markets.

Singapore-based Ivanhoe Capital, led by mining billionaire Robert Friedland, is floating a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) on the New York Stock Exchange.

Nueva Elektra del Milenio, the company that operates the retail store and money transfer businesses of Mexico’s Grupo Elektra, will begin virtual meetings with bond investors on Wednesday as it looks to sell a senior secured bond collateralised by remittance flows originated in the US.

Craig Meisner, the former head of loan markets for Lloyds Banking Group for North America, has landed a new job at ING Capital.

Brazilian bank BTG Pactual became the third Latin American issuer to announce plans to issue ESG-related debt this year after it mandated for a potential senior unsecured green bond.

Cancelling debt, dual interest rates, helicopter money: if the recovery from the coronavirus crisis stalls in the developed world, we will see calls for more radical central bank action.

Political turmoil in the US led to the country's stock markets falling on the first trading day of 2021 on Monday. For Europe’s equity bankers the US markets are an important marker of global investor sentiment, meaning the next few days in US politics will determine what accelerated placements they can bring to market in Europe.

Société Générale has hired Stephane About from Natixis, where he held a senior role in the Corporate and Investment Bank.

The New York Stock Exchange has dropped plans to delist the stocks of China Mobile, China Telecom Corp and China Unicom (Hong Kong).

Chinese clinical-stage company Gracell Biotechnologies has kicked off the roadshow for its Nasdaq listing, eyeing up to $158.9m in proceeds.

Mexico reopened the international bond market for EM borrowers on Monday by issuing the first Formosa bond from a Latin American sovereign in response to interest from Asian investors.