Americas

Syndicated loans are becoming a focal point of firms looking to demonstrate the power of blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, with different initiatives ramping up and competing to solve the problem of lengthy settlement times in the private debt market.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has hired former Credit Suisse fixed income sales banker Jose Hernandez-Ortiz as senior vice-president on its EM Lat Am solutions desk, GlobalCapital understands.

Ecuador tapped its September 2022s for a further $1bn on Tuesday but was unable to tighten pricing despite offering a new issue premium close to three digits.

Turmoil in Turkish bond markets put a dampener on Monday’s open after Moody’s junked the sovereign's credit rating. But with activity in the Middle East and, after a two year absence, Nigeria, the stage is set for a busy few weeks in EM.

German chemicals supplier Lanxess picked two banks to supply its €2bn bridge facility for the acquisition of Chemtura. More banks are set to join in syndication, according to a banker close to the deal.

Three Mexican borrowers are meeting bond investors this week as Latin American issuers continue to look to take advantage of low rates.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange has made a push for equity and options trading power in the US and Europe, by agreeing terms this week to buy Kansas-based exchange Bats Global Markets for $3.2bn.

Standard & Poor’s downgraded Barbados’s credit rating from B to B- on Friday, provoking an angry reaction from the leader of the opposition as the sovereign has crashed from investment-grade as recently as 2012 to the edge of full triple-C status.

Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA is considering sweetening its exchange offer to bondholders in an effort to push out debt maturities, after last week’s debt swap proposal received little traction.

The budding Chinese Panda bond market is about to get its second Canadian issuer with the National Bank of Canada establishing an up to Rmb5bn ($750m) programme.

Chinese data analytics firm Gridsum Holdings has raised $82m after global investors piled in to its Nasdaq IPO.

Azure Power Global, the holding company of Azure Power India, opened books on Thursday for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, and is targeting as much as $180.3m.