Americas

Pfizer’s consumer healthcare business has gone from being the belle of the ball to the last one left on the dancefloor on Friday, after GlaxoSmithKline joined Reckitt Benckiser in pulling out of a potential acquisition of the unit.

US insurance giant American International Group was rewarded for novelty value as it provided a mixture of senior and hybrid notes to help finance its $5.56bn acquisition of Validus.

A US presidential memo from Trump against China kicks off what could become a series of tit-for-tat tariff moves.

Latin American bond bankers are presenting unusual structures to potential buyers, even as markets remain weak and more straightforward, well-known credits are managing only modestly successful deal execution.

Meatpacking company Minerva began investor meetings on Wednesday ahead of a planned new perpetual bond issue that will pay for a tender offer of the company’s existing perps, as Brazilian issuers focus on liability management.

Mexican food producer Sigma Alimentos was the only Latin American borrower to issue internationally this week as bankers said that issuance conditions remained difficult.

Equity market volatility in the US spiked this week as investors scrambled to position for emerging risks, including impending tech regulation, an escalating trade war and rate hike worries.

Anheuser-Busch InBev timed a $10bn multi-trancher to perfection this week as it jumped into the market to extend maturities ahead of the Federal Reserve’s rate interest rate hike.

The Financial Services Committee of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday waved through a bill that could allow banks to remove initial margin for centrally cleared derivatives from their leverage exposure, and thus hold less capital.

The auto finance arm of General Motors opted for short maturities to try to ensure the success of its first bond sale of 2018, but the €1bn dual-tranche deal only received orders of €1.7bn and the lead managers were only able to tighten one of the tranches from initial price thoughts.

Canadian insurance holding company Fairfax Financial Holdings issued a eurobond for the first time on Thursday, taking advantage of more favourable market conditions.

RHI Magnesita, the Austrian-Brazilian maker of refractory products, has refinanced its debt with a new €305.6m five year term loan.