Americas

$14.6bn of secondary block paper priced in Europe and the US this week, according to Cortex data, as sellers offloaded large stakes in listed companies. They were taking advantage of a rally since the bottom of the pandemic sell-off in March. However, falling earnings estimates mean some fear that sellers may be divesting stock because they believe the market is overvalued.

ArcelorMittal’s $2bn recapitalisation with equity and mandatorily convertible bonds has traded badly in the aftermarket, leaving investors nursing heavy losses and raising fears of wider market contagion. Aidan Gregory, Sam Kerr and Owen Sanderson report.

Dada Nexus, an operator of Chinese on-demand retail and delivery platforms, and Legend Biotech Corp both set the ball rolling for Nasdaq IPOs this week.

Genscript Biotech Corp is planning to spin-off and list subsidiary Legend Biotech Corp in a potential $100m Nasdaq IPO. The firm submitted listing documents to the US regulator on Wednesday.

Central American sovereign Belize, which last restructured its international debt in 2017, is likely to seek to delay a $13m coupon payment due in August on its only external bond, believes Moody’s.

The International Monetary Fund is likely to approve a request from Chilean authorities for a two year flexible credit line (FCL) that the country’s central bank says is being sought “to reinforce the external position in a high risk external scenario”.

The Republic of Finland had to share its return to dollar market on Wednesday with a trio of three year SSA deals. Demand for dollar SSA bonds has been strong this week, and with mandates out for five and seven year deals,issuers are still looking to take advantage

US taxi company Lyft has issued a new $650m convertible bond to raise capital to see itself through the Covid-19 crisis, joining the horde of US companies that have turned US equity-linked into one of the hottest corners of the capital markets during the pandemic.

Dada Nexus, an operator of Chinese on-demand retail and delivery platforms, has set the ball rolling for a Nasdaq IPO.

Grupo Energía de Bogotá (GEB), the Colombian electricity and gas distributor, tightened pricing sharply on a new 10 year deal as bankers reported huge appetite for the pick-ups being offered by the sturdiest investment grade EM companies.

The Argentina turnaround story under former president Mauricio Macri turned out to be a castle built on sand. But slick execution of the country’s two year bond market fairytale between 2016 and 2018 can provide the new government with some guidance in dealing with investors now it is staring down the barrel of default.

Companies that pay little tax have suffered worse share price declines during the coronavirus pandemic than the market as a whole — a result that suggests investors may at last be taking notice of this long ignored aspect of corporate governance.