Bank of America

On the surface, equity capital markets are a well-oiled machine, built to run over the rocky ground of unpredictable stockmarkets. Beneath the surface, there is a lot of sweat. Banks are having to staff their teams with less money, but do just as many deals. Investors are under the cosh, too, squeezed by weak performance and the march of passive funds. Jon Hay reports.

The Z5.14bn (€1.16bn) of loans for the leveraged buy-out of Allegro, the Polish online marketplace, have been allocated, with the leads choosing zloty rather than senior or junior euro bonds for the second lien piece.

Indian conglomerate Reliance Group is the latest to file for an infrastructure investment trust listing, announcing plans to raise Rp30bn ($442m).

Four European lenders have turned down a $2bn loan for National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), while local banks are starting to return to secondary markets for the first time in a year — signs that the Middle Eastern loan market could see a different set of banks driving it in 2017. Elly Whittaker reports.

Another piece of next year’s equity capital markets issuance puzzle was turned over today, when Lonza, the Swiss pharmaceutical and chemical company, announced a Sfr3.3bn rights issue to pay for the acquisition of Capsugel from KKR.

Swiss pharmaceutical and biotech ingredients supplier Lonza has secured $5.5bn in funds from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS for the acquisition of US dosage form maker Capsugel, in a financing package that includes a variety of debt and equity products.

US data centre firm Equinix has doubled the size of its euro term loan offering to €1bn, as it looks to acquire 29 data facilities from Verizon for $3.6bn, even as one investor noted an unusual 50% collateral cap on the firm’s secured debt.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi signed a $2bn three year loan on Tuesday, cementing the bank group for its $175bn merger with First Gulf Bank, though some key European banks turned down a role on the deal.

Two firms with Asian links canned their US floats this week, with InnoLight Technology Corp and Ironshore announcing they have dropped their listing plans.

Equity-linked bond bankers are looking forward to a lively year for issuance in Emea in 2017, as they believe market conditions will favour the product and a wide variety of issuers will find it useful.

US data centre firm Equinix launched a €500m seven year term loan ‘B’ at bank meetings this week, following its announcement of plans to acquire a portfolio of data centres from Verizon for $3.6bn.

BAML loses Hong Kong IB chief to UBS — UBS hires from Deutsche for M&A — ANZ appointments — SGX names head of fixed income sales