Americas

Digital retailer B2W attracted a huge book on its bond market debut on Wednesday, tightening pricing to land just an 0.125% in yield terms wide of its parent company, Brazilian retail giant Lojas Americanas.

Guatemala’s head of public credit said on Wednesday that the Central American sovereign hoped to resolve in the “next two days” a dispute with Florida-based Teco Energy that has caused its fiscal agent in New York to freeze a coupon payment due at the start of this month.

NRG Energy has priced a roughly $3.8bn five tranche bond offering — including the first ever sustainabilty-linked notes from a US issuer — to finance its acquisition of North American energy retailer Direct Energy.

Deutsche Börse has beefed up its offering in sustainable finance and corporate governance services through purchasing a majority stake in ISS, the ESG data and analytics provider.

Guatemala is locked in a legal fight with Florida-based Teco Energy that public credit director Rosa María Ortega said in a motion to a New York District Court endangered the Central American sovereign’s “perfect” bond repayment record.

Chile will look to sell $1.8bn-equivalent of Euroclearable, peso-denominated domestic law bonds to local and international investors on Thursday, according to the finance ministry.

Mexico will hold a virtual non-deal roadshow with Japanese investors next week, according to Gabriel Yorio, Mexico’s deputy finance minister.

Peruvian private healthcare provider Auna sold its first international bond on Tuesday, overcoming major political volatility in its home country as bankers said the limited offering of Peruvian corporate paper played in the issuer’s favour.

As investors sought gold and silver as a hedge against inflation and uncertainty, investment banks with the capabilities to act in these markets benefitted. Some made more than $100m in precious metals in the third quarter, according to Coalition Greenwich.

Gregg Lemkau is leaving Goldman Sachs at the end of the year and will head up an alternative investment firm linked to tech entrepreneur Michael Dell. Jim Esposito will take over as joint head of the investment banking division at Goldman.

The Financial Stability Board has said that it will look at policies to address systemic risk when it comes to financial intermediation involving non-banks, as it seeks to learn lessons from the market meltdown at the cusp of the coronavirus crisis in March.

Chinese housing-related platform operator Ke Holdings, which listed in August in New York, is back again to the equity market. It is looking to raise around $2.6bn from a follow-on offering.