Americas

Santander’s S3 business is set to join up with Crédit Agricole’s CACEIS, as the two banks look to merge their custody and asset servicing operations, a growing area of revenue for banks.

Chinese company Hollysys Automation Technologies withdrew its planned follow-on share offering on Wednesday.

Just one Latin American issuer comprises the visible new issue pipeline, though bankers say market conditions continued to be favourable during the short working week.

Trinidad Petroleum Holdings (TPH), the state oil company of Trinidad and Tobago, is looking to stave off an $850m August bond maturity with a debt exchange and new senior secured loan.

The US Federal Reserve’s more dovish than expected stance this year triggered the return of Latin America’s largest telecoms company to the dollar bond market after an eight year absence, the group’s chief financial officer told GlobalCapital.

Investment banking activity suffered a sluggish start to the year at the top US names, particularly in equity underwriting, but conditions brightened as winter turned to spring.

US banks tapped the market this week on the back of a strong earnings season, exploiting favourable market conditions going into the Easter holiday weekend.

High grade dollar bond issuance in the US slowed to a trickle this week ahead of the Easter holiday weekend, even though companies are beginning to emerge from earnings blackouts.

The Province of Ontario’s three year dollar benchmark this week sparked criticism from onlooking bankers after the spread was set a day before pricing. However, a head of SSA DCM at one of the leads replied that it was the “honourable” thing to do after the deal received more demand than expected.

Former senior executives at the World Bank have warned incoming president David Malpass that he must use his first 100 days to make clear to staff he is prepared to distance himself from the agenda of Donald Trump.

Wells Fargo attracted plenty of interest in a new five year senior bond in euros on Wednesday and was able to squeeze all of the new issue premium out of the transaction, its first in euros for two years.

A surge in shareholder activism is providing banks with a lucrative new source of revenue, but they have to tread carefully or risk losing treasured corporate relationships, writes David Rothnie.