Americas

Mexican retailer Grupo Famsa is looking to gain some breathing room with an exchange to push out a looming bond maturity. Yet though Standard & Poor’s and Fitch both consider this a “distressed” deal, only Fitch is planning to cut the borrower’s rating to default.

UBS lets go of ECM bankers — Bank of America’s Coben to return after Twitter investigation — Macquarie closes cash equities business in Europe and US

HSBC is planning to allocate capital away from lower return operations, including the global banking and markets (GBM) division in certain regions, as interim chief executive Noel Quinn revealed disappointing third quarter results on Monday.

Dollar volumes proved higher than expected as the US investment grade market roared back to life following earnings blackouts, with a string of front-loaded deals ahead of the Fed’s meeting on Wednesday.

A year on from the botched appointment of Andrea Orcel as CEO, Santander is pressing ahead with the next phase of its investment banking strategy, writes David Rothnie.

Central American development bank Cabei sold its first green bond in the public markets on Thursday, increasing the size of its five year floating rate note from $300m to $375m after attracting nearly $1bn of orders.

French auto-manufacturer PSA Group, which owns Peugeot, and Fiat Chrysler Automobile's (FCA) decision to explore a merger to create the world’s fourth largest car company is an important marker for an industry facing an uncertain future as sustainability and the environment become global priorities.

State Grid Corporation of China is seeking a loan to support its $2.23bn acquisition of Sempra Energy’s Chilean business. Even though it is a time of turmoil in Chile, lenders are bidding aggressively for the deal, owing to the state-owned Chinese company’s strong credentials, writes Pan Yue.

Chilean power company Empresa Eléctrica Cochrane sold $430m of 7.5 year amortising notes on Wednesday as part of a bond and loan refinancing of project finance debt.

The Province of Alberta has announced its financing requirements for the next few years, which will be met with benchmarks in a range of currencies, medium term notes and structured issues.

Emerging market issuers continued to enjoy solid market conditions this week with new mandates joining the pipeline and Abu Dhabi’s Mamoura executing a $3.5bn triple tranche trade.

Dechra Pharmaceuticals, the UK veterinary pharmaceuticals company, has entered the US private placement (US PP) market, according to sources, in a debut set to test institutional appetite for the sector.