Americas

European financial institutions have made very limited use of Canadian dollars in recent years, but the region’s issuers could soon start to embrace the Maple market as they look to diversify their funding bases for the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL).

Gran Tierra Energy, the Canada-listed oil and gas company that mostly operates in Colombia, held investor meetings and calls on Friday as it plots its second-ever international bond deal.

In this round up, China-US trade tension peaked with US president Donald Trump’s market-moving tweet, Chinese FX reserves dipped in April and the amount of Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) quotas approved in April surpassed that of all of last year.

Latin American bond bankers believe primary market activity will pick up next week after a volatile week led some banks to postpone previously scheduled mandate announcements.

Venezuelan government-owned oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) is likely to make a $71m interest payment on its 2020 notes, the only external bond on which the country has not yet defaulted.

Paraguay tapped bond investors on Thursday to finance its portion of the transcontinental road, raising $732.3m of amortising notes with an average life of 8.9 years and using a zero coupon structure to reflect project payment flows.

The US corporate bond market caught fire this week, as two huge M&A financings - $19bn for Bristol-Myers Squibb and $20bn for IBM - were priced on successive days, and met contrasting fortunes.

The US was set to raise tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods, as GlobalCapital went to press, after talks between the two economic powers appeared to break down. Few people predicted it, most having prematurely stopped worrying about the US-China trade war and its impact on markets.

Global equity markets suffered their worst days of the year this week after an apparent breakdown in trade talks between the US and China, causing investors to sell and volatility to spike and possibly wrecking equity issuance plans, write Sam Kerr and Ross Lancaster.

Schlesinger leaves Santander – New responsibilities for Ross – Soc Gen shuffles markets top brass

US president Donald Trump caused turmoil in global financial markets this week, after threatening to ramp up tariffs on Chinese goods. But although Trump stirred up trouble, Chinese start-up Luckin Coffee was not put off from brewing a US IPO. With heavy-hitting institutional investors already piling in to the offering, the company looks on track to raise more than half a billion dollars. Jonathan Breen reports.

Casino operator MGM China Holdings priced a larger-than-expected $1.5bn 144A/Reg S deal this week, and both tranches rallied in the secondary market despite a broader risk-off sentiment.