Americas

The US private placement market has hosted a few whopper deals from European issuers this year, but overall dealflow has been underwhelming. Meanwhile, the Schuldschein market has had its second busiest quarter ever and has already led bankers to raise their full year volume predictions. Rob Cooke and Elly Whittaker report.

Two blockbuster trades from US drug giants Mylan and Pfizer propelled US corporate issuance to its largest month ever as investors continued to put money to work on new deals.

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp has wrapped up a landmark $8.9bn sell-down in Alibaba Group Holdings through a combination of five separate transactions, including raising $5.5bn via the sale of mandatory exchangeable trust securities (METS). The size of the METS is impressive, making it the largest equity-linked deal globally since 2010, but it also came with a structure almost never seen before in Asia. Jonathan Breen reports.

Brazilian state owned oil company Petrobras has intensified its efforts to persuade holders of its 8.375% 2018s to part with their paper, increasing the price it is willing to pay for the notes from 107.875 to 110.

Argentine cable company Cablevision will begin meeting investors on Thursday ahead of a planned $500m bond issue.

US insurer AIG, one of the major players in the subprime mortgage crisis, has been welcomed back to the euro bond market for the first time since its rescue.

Brazilian pulpmaker Eldorado Brasil Celulose is understood to be planning to meet fixed income investors as soon as this week ahead of a $500m debut international bond sale.

Deutsche Bank, Itaú and JP Morgan will manage Argentine cable company Cablevision’s return to international bond markets, according to Lat Am DCM bankers.

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp has blown open the equity-linked market with the launch of a $5bn bond exchangeable into shares of Alibaba Group Holdings, part of a planned $7.9bn sell-down in the e-commerce giant’s stock.

The Province of Manitoba on Tuesday sold its largest ever deal in euros, tapping its June 2040 line for €212m. The deal has, according to a funding official at the issuer, paved the way for a debut public transaction in the currency.

A key measure of US market volatility has hit its lowest point for a year, suggesting traders are counting on the recent calm to continue, with no shocks or surprises.

As the state of Illinois faces one of the worst budget standoffs in its history, some lawmakers are proposing a tax on derivatives that one advocate called the "single-bullet solution”.