Americas

Nestlé made the tech stock sell-off look irrelevant as it raced into the US corporate bond market as soon as it opened this week, raising $4bn and scoring the lowest coupons on record for a 144A issuer at those maturities on each of its four tranches.

The resilience of capital markets in the face of the coronavirus pandemic has encouraged equity issuers and sellers to bring an abundance of IPOs, rights issues and block trades this autumn. Indices have bounced since their March nadir but their vulnerability — and that of ECM activity — to the tech stocks that have driven the rebound was made stark this week when the Nasdaq index fell more than 10% in two days, write Sam Kerr and Aidan Gregory.

A year on from the closure of its flow equity trading business, Deutsche Bank’s investment bank is back in a bullish mood after performing well during the first stage of the coronavirus crisis.

Boutique firm Liberum has picked David Parsons as executive chairman and Bidhi Bhoma as chief executive, as founder Shane Le Prevost, who previously held both those positions, is stepping down.

Trade finance lender Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exerior (Bladex) sold its first dollar bond in five years on Wednesday, boasting an order book that remained strong despite spread tightening to give Latin American primary markets an encouraging start to September.

Brazil’s largest independent oil and gas company, Petro Rio, will begin investor calls on Thursday ahead of a proposed debut bond issue that bankers say will test the strength of the market like no other Latin American issuer this month.

Consorcio Transmantaro, the Peruvian transmission company, added $200m to its green bonds maturing in 2034 on Wednesday.

Private Mexican energy company Infraestructura Energética Nova (IENova) began calls with fixed income investors on Wednesday as it plans a second visit to international bond markets.

Chinese pet-focused e-commerce site Boqii Holding filed its listing documents for a US IPO on Tuesday, but Citigroup, one of the original lead banks on the deal, is now no longer in the syndicate.

Chindata Group Holdings, iHuman and Yalla Group filed IPO paperwork with the US regulator on Tuesday as they prepare to float on New York stock exchanges.

Government-owned lender Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (BNCR) will use cash to finance a buy-back for a portion of senior bonds maturing in 2023, sources close to the borrower told GlobalCapital on Tuesday.

The world’s largest independent McDonald’s franchisee, Arcos Dorados, is planning to tap its senior unsecured bonds due 2027 as it looks to refinance debt raised to tackle the Covid-19 crisis.