Americas

Markets and banking helped drive Citi’s better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings, but the results still failed to convince investors that the bank has a clear path to growth.

Chinese company Haier has enlisted three lenders to fund its $5.4bn acquisition of Kentucky headquartered GE Appliances.

Heavily indebted Colombian-Canadian oil company Pacific Exploration & Production disappointed some bondholders on Friday by announcing it intended to miss coupon payments due this month and use the 30 day grace period “to assess strategic alternatives”.

The Province of British Columbia (BC) is set to price its debut Panda bond on Thursday, January 21. The up to Rmb3bn ($457m) three year offering is being marketed at a range of 2.6%-3.0%, several sources have told GlobalRMB.

Latin America’s best-rated sovereign reopened the region’s capital markets this week with a dual-currency trade that showed large financings are still on offer — though it also provoked debate over issuance strategies in tough markets.

Lat Am bankers said that the 15bp-20bp new issue concession achieved by Mexico in its first deal of the year was unlikely to be bettered by anyone soon after the sovereign raised $2.25bn in a tough market.

This was the supposed to be the week of the bears. Research analysts warned of economic doom, declaring that the savage sell-offs of the new year were just a foretaste of carnage to come.

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s $46bn seven tranche bond issue this week defied expectations that the brewer would have to pay up to finance its takeover of SAB Miller. InBev took out nearly two-thirds of its acquisition financing in one go.

Crédit Agricole and Intesa Sanpaolo required big premiums to reopen the euro and dollar additional tier one (AT1) markets this week, and bankers fear others will have to follow due to poor secondary liquidity in the product.

It has been a big week for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. The organisation moved to overhaul its credit determinations committee rules and broaden its board representation at the same time as undertaking a widely watched first credit event auction of the year and heading into new territory with a Novo Banco CDS external review.

Yankee banks took advantage of an improved market backdrop and US earnings blackout to jump into the dollar market this week.

Covered bonds issued this week from Lloyds and Bank of Nova Scotia were among the largest seen this year and attracted the biggest order books.