Banks

Global equity capital markets suffered severe hits this week, as governments scrambled to respond to an escalation in the coronavirus pandemic. But amid the mayhem, InnoCare Pharma saw an opportunity to launch its IPO, treating Hong Kong to its largest listing in about two months. Jonathan Breen reports.

Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group’s $10.6bn purchase of Tesco’s Asia business has been hailed as a “landmark” deal that will liven up the region’s loan market. Bankers are now openly debating how they can get in on a financing that will tap both international and domestic liquidity. Pan Yue reports.

Spreads on bank bonds were sent shooting wider again on Thursday, caught up in further negative news around the Covid-19. But market participants are still unsure about how much of impact the pandemic will have on bank credit quality, with the sector already facing pressures over profitability.

HSBC has appointed Mark Wang as president and chief executive for China in the latest high-level reshuffle at the bank.

Patrick Porritt has left Credit Suisse, as the bank promotes new faces.

DZ Bank is creating a tool that will automate the process of scoring investors based on their commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies for preferential treatment in the allocation of socially responsible bonds.

Members of the European Banking Federation have called on supervisory authorities for help through the ‘temporary struggle’ of the Covid-19 pandemic, asking them for looser capital and liquidity requirements and special treatment of lending impacted by the virus.

International Finance Corporation defied volatility to achieve an impressive result in the dollar public sector bond market on Wednesday as it managed to bring in the spread by 4bp to price through the European Investment Bank.

Costain Group, the UK construction and engineering firm, has unveiled a £100m capital increase to shore up its balance sheet following a disappointing set of 2019 results.

Spreads on financial institutions bonds are recovering from a brutal sell-off at the beginning of the week, as European governments and central banks weigh in to help economies deal with the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.

Once again, corporate bond markets have staged a recovery after a shutdown of several days as asset prices plummeted in response to the growing coronavirus outbreak. Three industrial companies plus JP Morgan issued bonds in the US on Tuesday, which “all went exceptionally well” according to a head of syndicate in London. Danone launched on Wednesday the first euro corporate issue of the week, paying a high spread but small new issue premium.

One of the internal candidates to become the next permanent head of European M&A at RBC Capital Markets has quit to join a boutique.