Americas

A procession of blue-chip corporate and Yankee names re-opened the dollar market with jumbo deals this week as investors displayed a strong appetite for US high-grade paper.

Lloyds reopened the dollar market for European borrowers for the first time since the UK’s vote to leave the European Union last week, surprising market participants who thought the country’s banks would need longer to recover from 'Brexit'.

Two of the five US subsidiaries of European banks under the Federal Reserve’s supervision failed the regulator’s stress test this week, despite having some of the highest common equity tier one ratios under the Fed’s worst case scenario. The banks, mostly with US headquarters, that passed largely plan to increase dividends and buybacks

Brazilian meatpacker Marfrig clinched a drive-by bond reopening on Wednesday to notch up another success in its proactive liability management programme, raising $250m of seven year bonds that it will use to buy back existing debt.

Latin American borrowers rushed to new issue markets en masse on Wednesday to confirm the thesis that Brexit would have little or no effect on the region, with four issuers pricing bonds and several more likely to do so imminently.

The Republic of Argentina on Thursday made an unexpected second visit to bond markets this year to raise $2.75bn, but some investors said that anyone surprised that the sovereign had issued more debt should be comforted by the use of proceeds.

Argentine corporate Arcor sold what some bankers described as the star deal of the day on a busy Wednesday in the Lat Am new issue market. Both the confectionary company and fellow Argentine borrower Salta raised $350m of seven year money.

Brandywine Global Investment Management, which manages about $70bn in assets, has hired three for its global fixed income group.

US brewer Molson Coors didn’t miss a beat as it hopped into the European corporate bond market on Wednesday, sweeping away Brexit-related uncertainty to issue an €800m eight year bond after closing a $5.3bn deal the day before.

Refinancing risk for non-financial corporate bonds remains “high”, said Fitch on Tuesday, pointing out that more than $30bn of Latin American non-financial corporate bonds will mature in the next 18 months.

The US high grade corporate bond market has rebounded strongly following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, after Molson Coors unveiled a multi-billion dollar M&A financing.

The RMB remained a tiny portion of payments between the US and China in May, according to the latest Swift data. Meanwhile, the RMB remained in sixth position among the most used payment currencies.