Americas

Argentina’s second smallest province is readying a dollar denominated bond, looking to become the 13th sub-sovereign authority to issue since the government exited default a year ago.

Nine mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners have invited lenders to join the international loan market debut of Ant Financial subsidiary, Alipay (Hong Kong) Holding. The money will partly be used to support Ant’s bid to acquire MoneyGram.

Panama plans to raise $1bn on the international bond market as part of an investment drive to underpin economic growth and shrug off the impact of recent financial scandals.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has settled a charge of spoofing in the US Treasury futures market with two Citigroup traders.

The dollar market for bank and financial issuance has recorded its first week of zero supply in 2017, but still smashed records for the busiest quarter of all time.

The largest McDonald’s franchise operator in the world attracted a super-sized $2bn of demand for a deal of just $265m on Thursday as investors said the allocation bun fight left them wanting more Big Mac bonds.

Chilean-Brazilian Latam Airlines is likely to be at the centre of a rush of corporate bond supply from Latin America next week after Standard & Poor’s praised the company’s cost-cutting efforts.

US aircraft component maker Rockwell Collins re-opened the dollar market with the biggest deal in its history and propelled high-grade issuance to its busiest first quarter on record.

Colombia-headquartered lender GNB Sudameris returned to bond markets after a four year absence on Wednesday, tightening pricing on a 10 year non-call five tier two bond.

RVX Asset Management, the Florida-based investment manager, has hired Todd S Jessup to be director of institutional client services, it said.

CPPIB Capital is looking to step across the Atlantic into euros, selecting four banks to roadshow its euro debut. Elsewhere, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) sent out its first request for proposals for the second quarter.

With big, powerful rivals including the syndicated loan market, the European private placement or Euro PP market has its work cut out to establish itself as a genuine alternative for companies looking to raise debt. However, its flexibility and growing institutional investor base mean there are plenty of grounds for optimism. Philip Moore reports.