Americas

In this round-up, S&P Global’s wholly-owned China unit gave its first onshore rating to ICBC Leasing, Italy will strengthen ties with the Mainland through a Panda bond and Bond Connect volumes rise.

Five Latin American companies and Caribbean-based Cable & Wireless (C&W) all sold dollar deals on Thursday, as borrowers jumped on improved expectations of a US rate cut and seemed to shrug off a sell-off in US Treasuries later in the day.

Argentina’s leading telecoms company became the latest borrower from the country to tap international investors on Thursday, but though bond investors showed plenty of enthusiasm for Telecom Argentina’s bond comeback, some were wary about oversupply from the country.

Nationwide Building Society and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group joined in a Yankee stampede to the dollar market on Thursday, as issuers exploited red-hot funding conditions while markets rallied on a dovish message from US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.

Deutsche Bank’s strategic overhaul looks set to maintain the bank’s leading position in debt capital markets and leveraged finance. But it casts doubts over Deutsche’s ability to retain a top tier corporate finance franchise and could signal the slow death of its equity capital markets franchise, writes David Rothnie.

The chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, has insisted he will stand firm against any attempts by president Donald Trump to sack him as head of the central bank. Powell also warned that Facebook’s Libra currency plans raise concerns about financial stability.

The Natural Disaster Fund, backed by the UK government, has a first option to subscribe to a small catastrophe bond to be issued by the Danish Red Cross, which conveys volcano risk.

Argentina’s best borrowers continue to seek to take advantage of a recently opened funding window in international markets, with Telecom Argentina plotting to sell new debt to refinance old bonds.

Debt capital markets bankers covering Mexico do not expect the resignation of finance minister Carlos Urzúa on Tuesday to affect incoming bond issues though they acknowledge that his departure could create uncertainty.

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) returned to the covered bond market for the second time this week following its dollar benchmark and, thanks to a late rise in yields, the eight year deal offered more than twice the return of CIBC's eight year issued a week ago.

Last week’s tightly priced bond issue by KfW has inspired a slew of issuers to print three year dollar notes this week, a banker said. The Asian Development Bank was first off the blocks on Tuesday with a new benchmark, and Export Development Canada and Erste Abwicklungsanstalt are set to follow.

Toronto Dominion took advantage of strong demand on Monday to issue a $1.75bn three year covered bond, which was priced almost flat fair value.