Bank of America

PTT Oil and Retail Business has set the price guidance for its long-awaited IPO. It is aiming to raise up to Bt46.98bn ($1.57bn) from the country’s largest listing in a year.

The dollar corporate bond market has a more subdued feel this week, after its stellar start to the year, as US issuers are moving into earnings blackouts. But even as politics took centre stage as Congress moved to impeach President Donald Trump for the second time, ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, corporate borrowers quietly churned out deals.

Aroundtown, the Frankfurt-listed property company, opened 2021’s corporate hybrid capital issuance on Monday. More subordinated deals are already being lined up.

The dollar bond market made a fast start to the year this week, as investors showered Broadcom, the semiconductor maker, with $28bn of orders, enabling it to raise $10bn.

Emerging market bond trading desks were quiet on Monday, as the last business week of the year began with the world reacting to the rapid spread of a new strain of the Sars-Cov-2 virus in the UK. But market participants expect that EM assets cannot remain immune.

US-listed Chinese companies have raised more than $12bn from equity investors in the past month, with iQiyi becoming the latest to simultaneously sell a convertible bond and price a follow-on offering of its American depositary shares. With valuations soaring for many of these stocks, bankers expect more issuers to jump into the market in 2021, writes Jonathan Breen.

Embassy Office Parks Real Estate Investment Trust has has raised Rp36.84bn ($500.9m) from an issue of new stock, according to a source close to the deal.

Chinese streaming platform iQiyi has kicked off a combined convertible bond and follow-on offering that could raise around $1.7bn.

InterContinental Hotels Group has negotiated a waiver and relaxation on its loan covenants for the second time in 2020, as its leverage threatens to plunge its rating into junk territory.

European corporate borrowers glided through their curves this week. With the European Central Bank hitting easing expectations after its meeting on Thursday, syndicate bankers are expecting more deals on screens despite the time of year.

The battle for the UK security firm G4S is entering its final phase, with initial hostile suitor GardaWorld potentially upping its offer after Allied Universal said it had agreed to buy the target company for £3.8bn.

China’s Xiaopeng Motors, an electric vehicle (EV) maker, leveraged on a big boost in interest in new energy stocks from investors to raise $2.16bn from a follow-on offering of its American Depositary Shares. Jonathan Breen reports.