Bank of America

British American Tobacco’s (BAT) acquisition of US rival Reynolds American will trigger other merger talks across the tobacco industry which could see financing deals rolling up to capital markets, loan bankers believe. Silas Brown reports.

Wall Street banks celebrated a surge in earnings by flooding the dollar market with multi-billion dollar trades featuring callable tranches this week.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch will soon syndicate a €4bn bridge loan it has underwritten to back French aerospace group Safran’s acquisition of Zodiac Aerospace, the French maker of aircraft seats and interiors. The two companies want to leapfrog up the pecking order of aircraft parts suppliers.

The tally of sterling high yield bond sales in January is on course to reach £2bn after Jaguar Land Rover on Thursday launched a new £300m offering, adding to a recent surge of deals in the currency.

TPG Stallion Holdings raised HK$542.7m ($70.0m) after offloading a chunk of its stock in Chinese firm Li Ning Co this week, while Malaysia’s Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) sold a block of Maybank shares for MR281.7m ($63.3m).

Repeat Chinese issuer Yuzhou Properties Company and debut credits Reward Science and Technology Industry Group Co and United Photovoltaics pushed into the busy Wednesday market, looking to close dollar deals before the holiday.

The European Investment Bank scored an impressive €5bn with a 10 year Earn on Wednesday.

One of the busiest days ever in the public sector dollar market ended with five issuers sitting on deals printed at the top end of their size targets and with pricing tightened from initial thoughts. Another borrower is already out for Thursday business and bankers predict that conditions are so “incredible” that deal flow will stay healthy into next week — no matter what policy statements incoming US president Donald Trump makes at his inauguration on Friday.

State Bank of India wrapped up Asia ex-Japan's first dollar bank issuance of the year while navigating a crowded primary market this week, snapping up $500m from a senior five year.

TPG Stallion Holdings has raised HK$542.7m ($70.0m) after offloading a chunk of its shares in Chinese firm Li Ning Co.

Hong Kong's United Photovoltaics and Chinese issuers Reward Science and Technology Industry Group Co, Beijing Capital Group and Yuzhou Properties Company all launched new dollar transactions Wednesday amid a flurry of pre-holiday issuance.

Shares in Banco Comercial Português, the Portuguese bank, closed 15% higher on Tuesday after they began trading ex-rights ahead of its €1.33bn rights issue to strengthen its capital buffers and repay contingent convertible bonds owned by the Portuguese government.