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South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang is set for a multi-billion-dollar New York IPO — the first US listing from the country for a decade. The deal structure could appeal to other Korean start-ups, bankers said this week. Jonathan Breen reports.

Thomas Piketty and 100 other economists from across Europe put their signatures to an op-ed this week calling for the ECB to cancel its holdings of government debt. GlobalCapital debates whether it is radical but wise policy making, or would make matters worse still.

The financing for the Issa brothers and TDR Capital’s buyout of Asda was priced on Wednesday, breaking multiple records in the process and showing that, for the right issuer in the right conditions, the sterling market can shoulder the bulk of a multi-billion LBO package. Owen Sanderson reports.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is planning to bring in sweeping changes to rules governing equity and bond deals, requiring syndicate teams to be fixed earlier and fee structures to be disclosed. The moves have divided bankers. Jonathan Breen and Morgan Davis report.

If he can form a government that holds the demons of Italian politics at bay long enough to drag his country through the coronavirus pandemic, then Mario Draghi will have earned his laurels. But in Rome, glory has always been fleeting.

The Italian fashion house Tod’s has signed a €500m sustainability-linked loan, as environmentally conscious financing continues to infiltrate the infamously wasteful fashion industry.

The Singapore Exchange has sold a €240m zero coupon convertible bond, its debut equity-linked issue and the first CB from a stock exchange globally in eight years.

Andrea Orcel, the new CEO of UniCredit, may be annoyed to be upstaged by Avalon Penrose, an actor whose hilarious and heart-tugging Twitter video about the GameStop share maelstrom has captured the insanity of stock markets. But these are the frothy markets we live in now.

The European Union continued where it left off last year as it returned to the bond market this week with another jumbo deal that attracted a huge order book for the first deal of the year under its Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) funding programme.

Hong Kong’s government returned to the green bond market with a $2.5bn triple-tranche deal this week, making the most of growing investor demand for sustainable investment opportunities. Morgan Davis reports.

Tesco, the UK grocer, made a storming debut in the nascent sustainability-linked bond market on Wednesday, encouraging bankers who already expect corporate issuance using the novel structure to rocket this year.

A new era has begun in the US, with the swearing in of Joe Biden as president. For America and the rest of the world it is a sea change in leadership style and political substance.