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Renewable energy has finally arrived as one of the premier sectors in equity capital markets. All it took was a global pandemic.

KfW began a new wave of 10 year supply this week, reopening the SSA market’s trickiest tenor for business. Issuers are so eager to access the maturity that they are having to jockey for position.

Metals and mining firm Vedanta Resources’ $1.4bn bond this week took it one step closer to the planned delisting of a subsidiary. But the company took an unusual approach to the deal — a rare bond outing for a take-private in Asia — by offering investors a secured and callable amortising bond. Morgan Davis reports.

The coronavirus crisis has reshaped many aspects of finance, but not the line-up of top investment banks. It does appear to have pressed some firms into sharp decisions, though.

Ke Holdings sealed a $2.12bn IPO on the New York Stock Exchange this week, the largest US listing by a Chinese firm in more than two years, defying the shock caused by US sanctions against one of its largest shareholders, Tencent Holdings. Jonathan Breen reports.

KKR, the US private equity group, has sold a $1bn mandatory convertible bond to fund its acquisition of life insurer Global Atlantic Financial Group, which it announced last month.

The coronavirus crisis is a further reminder that fundamentals are not the only thing that matters when investing in bank capital.

Institutional investors in private placements (PPs) have signalled their appetite for borrowers beyond their typical stables throughout the coronavirus pandemic. But this week’s transaction from Vanguard Group — the largest in the market’s history — showed the size of funding available, as buyers demand bigger deals. Silas Brown reports.

Alibaba Health Information Technology navigated concerns around its lofty valuations to pull off Hong Kong’s largest primary follow-on in five years, raising HK$10bn ($1.29bn) after boosting the size of the deal. The transaction closed with a bulging book, showing that demand for the healthcare sector is yet to peak. Jonathan Breen reports.

The US Department of Labour (DoL) has proposed what it characterises as a reiteration of what has always been required of retirement fiduciaries — that they act in the best interest of their beneficiaries — urging them to disregard ESG considerations in investment decisions. In doing so, it appears not to have noticed the last decade in financial markets, which has shown that ESG investing is very much in investors’ interests.

Electric vehicle manufacturer Li Auto sealed a scorching $1.1bn Nasdaq IPO this week, pricing above the marketed range to make it the largest US listing by a Chinese company in nearly two years. The deal proved there is still interest among mainland firms to list in the US, despite rising hostilities between the two countries, writes Jonathan Breen.

The National Football League, the professional American football league in the US, has sold $1.7bn of private placements, according to market sources, to help steer the organisation through the coronavirus.