Americas

US pharma giant Merck reached for a long tenor on Wednesday, in the process reopening the market for ultra-long trades as it issued a 20 year tranche.

Argentine province Santa Fe’s debut international bond issuance on Tuesday made it the second tightest sub-sovereign name in the Argentine credit spectrum as the region’s low leverage levels allowed it to price just 50bp wide of the City of Buenos Aires.

Mexico raised completed the financing of all its external debt obligations for 2017 on Tuesday, selling €1.9bn of long eight and 15 year bonds in its second euro-denominated bond of 2016.

China has made progress in liberalising its capital account this year, but the moves have yet to win over US-based investors, Luke Oliver, head of exchange-traded funds (ETF) capital markets at Deutsche Asset Management (DAM) told GlobalRMB.

US agricultural equipment manufacturer AGCO more than doubled its first ever Schuldschein, from the launch size of €150m to €375m.

Mexico has followed Argentina to the euro market and has opened books on a deal that will see it print fresh eight year debt and an increase of its existing 31s.

Argentina’s third largest private sector bank in terms of loan portfolio size, Banco Macro, will begin a roadshow on Wednesday ahead of a potential dollar bond issue.

Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA finally wrapped up an exchange of its short-dated debt for new notes due 2020 on Friday after accepting tenders of $2.8bn from bondholders.

One month from the US regulator fining the New York unit of Mega International Commercial Bank, Taiwanese lenders are feeling the pressure and facing an unprecedented level of scrutiny on their existing loan books. But the extra paperwork should be viewed as a minor inconvenience with long-term benefits.

TriOptima, the derivatives post-trade services firm, claims to have performed the first compression of client-cleared trades in its latest SwapClear cycle for Canadian dollar interest rate swaps.

British American Tobacco has said it will use new credit lines to fund the $20bn cash component of its offer to acquire the remaining stake in Reynolds American it does not already own. While BAT said it is committed to an investment grade rating, all three big rating agencies now have it on review.

Morgan Stanley followed Goldman Sachs’s lead by putting a one year call option on a senior bond on Monday, as it became the third US bank to visit euros after publishing third quarter results.