Americas

Equity issuance has surged during the Covid-19 pandemic in both Europe and the US, and one of the sectors that has printed the most stock in the first half of the year is the biopharmaceuticals industry. In the rush for healthcare innovation, banks say they are busy lining up more deals for the second half.

Brazilian railroad operator Rumo, which Fitch believes should only suffer a “limited” impact from coronavirus, is preparing what would be the first green bond from Latin America since the pandemic hit.

Mexican real estate investment trust (Reit) Fibra Uno will monitor markets as it continues to look for liability management opportunities after pulling a proposed Reg S-only trade last week, the company’s capital markets vice-president has told GlobalCapital.

DirectBooks, which plans to bring a new issuance platform for bond markets, has not ruled out the possibility of a partnership with other providers.

The European equity capital markets are bucking wider equity market fears over a second wave of coronavirus infections in the US and bankers hope sentiment will hold even if global equity indices become more volatile.

German biotechnology company BioNTech has raised $225m via a private placement led by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek, amid growing investor appetite for biotech investments due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Two Asia-focused special purpose acquisition companies (Spacs) are looking to list on the US stock market.

Peru’s largest commercial lender Banco de Crédito del Perú (BCP) raised $850m of 10-year non-call five tier two bonds on Friday, offering what some bankers saw as a slim pick-up to its senior debt on the back of a nearly four times subscribed order book.

Citi has created a cross-border and public sector solutions (XPS) team, which will be headed by Valentina Antill globally, with Abhishek Kapur taking charge of Asia Pacific.

Each week, Keeping Tabs brings you the very best of what we in the GlobalCapital newsroom have found most useful, interesting and informative from around the web. This week: remote working challenges and opportunities, rethinking discrimination in economics, and how volatility strategies fell apart in the market crash.

The Federal Reserve has come under fire for failing to oblige banks to stop paying dividends at a time of extreme economic uncertainty. The results of its latest stress test showed this week that a quarter of US banks could approach their minimum capital ratios if the coronavirus pandemic leads to a double-dip recession.

Two of Mexico’s best-rated issuers eased through bond markets this week, even as the country faces ever-worsening economic forecasts, while bankers said Latin America’s top names could issue multiple times this year.