Bank of America

Goldman Sachs has strengthened its M&A team with a series of internal promotions, including the appointment of Richard Campbell-Breeden as vice chairman of investment banking for Asia Pacific ex Japan.

The Republic of Korea opened the books for a dual tranche dollar and euro denominated issue on Tuesday. The SEC registered deal is the first dual currency transaction from Korea and from an Asian sovereign since 2006.

China’s Tianhe Chemicals Group launched its HK$6.34bn ($818m) IPO on June 3 and investors are having plenty to do in order to figure the transaction out. There are no direct comparables for the Liaoning based firm.

Khopoli Investments, a subsidiary of India’s Tata Power, has launched into syndication a $205m three year loan priced at 210bp over dollar Libor, which bankers on the deal are hoping will be enough to generate strong interest from lenders.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has appointed Tim Waddell as vice-chairman of corporate and investment banking for EMEA, as it affirms the importance of international advisory business in its investment bank.

China Merchants Bank (CMB) Hong Kong branch will be meeting investors next week for a proposed debut dollar bond after setting up a new $5bn EMTN programme this week.

Wells Fargo continued the slew of big ticket issuance from financial names with a $4.5bn deal that pushed its total dollar funding in the past six weeks beyond $8bn.

French insurer CNP Assurances highlighted the scale of demand for sub debt from insurance companies on Tuesday, drawing a monster order book for its first deal in almost a year.

The leveraged loan market has hosted some atypically big M&A deals over the last few months, including most recently €7.5bn for DE Master Blenders. But these attention-grabbing deals cannot hide the continued paucity of deals in the mid-market.

Mexican commercial lender Banco Inbursa is likely to price a new 10 year benchmark senior unsecured bond on Thursday after releasing initial price thoughts offering around 25bp pick-up to its larger competitors BBVA Bancomer (A2/A-) and Santander Mexico (A3/BBB+/BBB+).

US asset management firm Waddell & Reed raised HK$10.7bn ($1.4bn) on May 27 by selling its entire stake in Sands China in what was the largest Asian block trade outside China and Japan this year.

AS Watson, the retail and manufacturing arm of Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, signed its HK$15bn ($1.93bn) loan on May 22 with a total of 22 banks, with lenders putting in their commitments in either Hong Kong dollars or euros.