Banks

The £4bn take-private of UK aerospace and defence company Cobham by US private equity firm Advent, backed by a £2.5bn debt package, was threatened this week when business secretary Andrea Leadsom ordered an investigation into the deal just after 93% of the shareholders voted to accept the deal.

A legion of lenders has joined London Stock Exchange Group’s $13.5bn bridge loan for its acquisition of data company Refinitiv, as the London exchange fights off a hostile bid from Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing that could scupper the acquisition.

The African Export-Import Bank sold its $750m 10 year bond on Tuesday from a book of around $3.35bn, with recent low supply from African issuers having helped drive demand for the deal.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce did not have to pay any premium to investors on Wednesday to launch its first fixed rate senior deal in the sterling market, which has coped well with a mass of supply in recent days.

Barclays has become the second financial institution to issue an additional tier one (AT1) in the sterling market this week, supported by a quiet backdrop in UK politics and healthy investor demand. The issuer was 7.5 times subscribed for its £1bn deal.

Wells Fargo hasn't wasted time in the bond market this week. It launched a euro senior bond on Wednesday, a day after raising sterling debt. Concurrently, Spanish lender Kutxabank was marketing a senior non-preferred bond in euros, its debut in the format.

Russia’s State Transport Leasing Company (STLC), is planning to add to the spree of new bonds from Russia, hitting the road to market a six or seven year dollar benchmark. The deal will be the first time a fully state-owned company has tried to tap the bond markets since the most recent round of US sanctions against the Russian sovereign in early August.

The investment grade bond market was noticeably cooler on Wednesday morning, compared to the €7.4bn and €5.4bn issued on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. Though calling it quiet would be a disservice, with Wednesday’s issuers looking to borrow €2.5bn. Meanwhile, a bond deal for a fertiliser mine in Yorkshire disappeared down a black hole.

GlobalCapital has revealed the results of its Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Awards 2019. The Awards gave honours to three debut sovereign issuers: the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Chile, investment firm Amundi, and banks including Crédit Agricole, HSBC and ING.

China Orient Asset Management Co (Orient AMC) priced an almost 10 times covered dual-tranche bond with strong backing from its lead manager consortium. The borrower went out without a keepwell deed from the onshore entity, but investors were undeterred by the structure.

Upstream oil and gas company ENN Ecological Holdings Co priced a $250m tap of a bond it sold earlier this year. The deal came after news of a share transfer that could give it effective control over sister company ENN Energy Holdings.

Herald International Financial Leasing, a subsidiary of BMW, bagged its second Rmb2.5bn ($353m) auto lease asset-backed note on Tuesday, pricing the dual-tranche deal at the tighter end of the price guidance range.