Americas

Another week and another first for the Schuldschein market, in what has been a stunning first quarter for the German private placement market. Fresenius US Finance II has completed the largest dollar deal in the market, raising $400m, according to bankers.

Mexican duo Pemex and América Móvil headed to Europe to raise financing this week, becoming the first corporates of the year to join the trend of Latin American borrowers selling euro denominated debt.

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Nasdaq this week agreed to buy International Securities Exchange (ISE) from Deutsche Boerse in a transaction valued at $1.1bn in cash and debt, a move that will give it a dominant position in the options market. It also adds another twist to the wider battle for hegemony in global derivatives exchange and clearing.

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) and National Australia Bank (NAB) raised more than €3bn this week in the US dollar denominated covered bond market, nearly doubling supply seen so far this year.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway printed the biggest M&A deal since AB InBev’s jumbo deal in January with a $9bn multi tranche offering that attracted a massive order book and underscored the dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the US high grade market.

Hutchison China MediTech’s (Chi-Med) $100m IPO on the Nasdaq was oversubscribed three days into bookbuilding, even as bankers pinned their hopes on a select group of US funds.

Tata Steel is speaking to banks for a $600m loan to refinance debt related to its Canadian operations, GlobalCapital Asia understands.

Cemex tightened its latest deal by over 50bp from initial price thoughts as the Mexican cement company was rewarded for a conservative starting strategy with a well-oversubscribed book.

Latin American debt bankers could not hide their delight on Wednesday evening after a remarkable day in new issue activity that included two heavily oversubscribed deals from high yield issuers that traded up in the grey.

State-owned oil giant Pemex became the second Mexican company to raise euro denominated debt this week, following the same strategy it took in dollars earlier in the year by focussing on the short end of the curve.

Far from a signal of returning strength in commodities, this week’s iron ore surge was due to freak activity in derivatives markets, an analyst has claimed, since daily futures volumes were equal to the annual output of big iron ore producers.