Banks

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) positioned itself among the very highest credits on Thursday with its capital markets debut, selling a five year global dollar benchmark bond that bankers said was priced similarly to top rated supranational debt from issuers like the World Bank and the European Investment Bank.

K+S, the potash and salt producer, has refinanced its revolving credit facility a year early, to lock in favourable borrowing terms at it seeks to move back to positive free cashflow for the first time for more than five years.

The US’s Genco Shipping & Trading has increased the size of its bank loan, as the global shipping industry prepares to finance sweeping mandatory changes to become more environmentally friendly.

France’s Lagardère has launched a Schuldschein deal, with the media company likely the only new name on screens before an expected deluge of trades from next week onwards.

Lloyds Bank found good demand for its third visit to the sterling covered bond market in the last eight months and the largest Sonia linked bond of that type issued this year. Attractive relative value and a prospective supply slowdown propelled demand, enabling the deal to be priced flat to fair value.

Sovcomflot, the Russian shipping company, has signed a 10 year loan facility with three international lenders. Russian syndicated loan volumes remain low, but Sovcomflot is widely regarded by bankers as one of the stronger and more established Russian borrowers.

Gold Fields, a South Africa-headquartered mining company, sold its $1bn dual tranche bond on Wednesday at a spread that looked historically tight to comparable issuer, AngloGold. It attracted $3bn of orders despite national elections on the same day.

A number of Chinese real estate companies have returned to the offshore loan market after struggling to raise money in the second half of 2018. Although some bankers said they are more willing to lend than they were last year, they are also complaining about the size of some deals. Pan Yue reports.

Two African borrowers are set to hit the road for dollar bonds, extending a run of deals from the continent after a slow start to the year.

US president Donald Trump caused turmoil in global financial markets this week, after threatening to ramp up tariffs on Chinese goods. But although Trump stirred up trouble, Chinese start-up Luckin Coffee was not put off from brewing a US IPO. With heavy-hitting institutional investors already piling in to the offering, the company looks on track to raise more than half a billion dollars. Jonathan Breen reports.

UniCredit’s chief executive, Jean Pierre Mustier, moved fast this week to sell €1bn of stock in FinecoBank, the Italian bank’s online brokerage, after a decision to deconsolidate the unit. Many in the market see UniCredit's accelerating asset sales as an effort to boost its capital position before exploring M&A opportunities in 2020. Aidan Gregory reports.

Casino operator MGM China Holdings priced a larger-than-expected $1.5bn 144A/Reg S deal this week, and both tranches rallied in the secondary market despite a broader risk-off sentiment.