Americas

Syncona, the UK life sciences investor, has launched a new gene therapy company, through a £45m series A private fundraising round. The company could be a future candidate for a lucrative biotech listing.

The tripling of Chinese e-commerce firm Pinduoduo’s shares this year did little to deter investors from pouncing on its follow-on and convertible bond outing. It raised about $5.3bn from the combined transactions, paving the way for further expansion and growth.

The banking landscape in Spain and the UK is set to change, amid pressure on banks' profitability, after a flurry of announcements this week.

Mexican power generator FEL Energy, which sells 70% of its capacity to state-owned electric utility CFE, priced a debut bond deal on Wednesday as investors were unshaken by noise surrounding a different Mexican credit with a long-term agreement with a government-owned entity.

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.