Banks

Makinson Cowell joins Lazard — Vikas Seth moves into vice-chairman role at HSBC — Fernando Vicario picked as CEO of BofA's EU bank

Permira opted to rescue its debt purchasing portfolio company Lowell from the restructuring that many thought was imminent, with the largest slug of equity support any sponsor has injected in Europe since the coronavirus pandemic began. Covid-19 has crushed cashflows for some debt purchasers, but next year should be a bumper year for NPL buying — for those firms with cash to do so, writes Owen Sanderson.

Christian Meissner has an exciting new position at Credit Suisse. But how far can he improve the Swiss bank’s offering to wealth management clients while also handling its culture, asks David Rothnie.

Soltec Power Holding, the Spanish maker of solar trackers for renewable energy generation, has narrowed the price range for its IPO on the Spanish Stock Exchange, after the deal was covered shortly after the launch of bookbuilding earlier this week.

DZ Hyp returned to the covered bond market for the fourth time this year on Thursday to issue a €1bn eight year mortgage Pfandbrief. The deal showed that any uncertainty over the relative value of covered bonds has been firmly swept away after the European Union’s blow out debut earlier this week.

Rabobank intends to make an exceptional distribution on its equity-like Certificates and will avoid breaching the European Central Bank’s dividend ban by paying its investors in more Certificates rather than in cash.

China’s Ant Group kicked off marketing for its Hong Kong and Shanghai dual listing on Thursday, the last stage before launching a possible $35bn IPO, set to be the world’s largest to date. The combined offering is already more than a third covered by onshore investors, with global buyers lining up for the rest. Addison Gong and Jonathan Breen report.

Hong Kong’s securities watchdog has fined Goldman Sachs $350m for regulatory failures in its work on bonds issued by the scandal-hit Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB, part of a multi-billion-dollar settlement with global regulators.

Agricultural Development Bank of China returned to the offshore renminbi market this week with a Rmb5.7bn ($854m) triple-tranche transaction. The deal featured a rare 10 year tenor in the dim sum market, showing the potential for more long-dated CNH funding. Addison Gong reports.

Meituan, a Chinese e-commerce platform and food delivery company, sold its first dollar bond on Wednesday, netting $2bn on the back of an order book that reached $16bn at its peak.

Euronav, the Belgium based crude oil tanker company, has signed a $713m loan package, as the sector outlook turns bleak after a strong start to the year because of an overproduction of oil.

JW (Cayman) Therapeutics set its IPO in motion on Thursday, opening the order book for the up to HK$2.3bn ($300m) deal.