Coronavirus

Central China New Life, a property management company, has launched marketing for its Hong Kong IPO as it aims to raise up to HK$2.16bn ($278.6m). The Mainland-based firm has begun virtual meetings with investors as the threat of Covid-19 continues to prevent any hopes of physical meetings.

The Republic of Peru has approved a further $4bn of debt issuance to finance coronavirus spending just two weeks after tapping bond markets for $3bn.

Unédic, the French agency responsible for providing the country's unemployed with social benefits, has had to ramp up its borrowing programme for 2021, thanks to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Emergency financing to combat the effects of the coronavirus pandemic have dominated UK equity capital markets since the country went into lockdown on March 23. But investors still have the capacity to fund companies raising growth capital although many issuers are said to be waiting for clarity on the path out of lockdown from the government expected next week.

The UK Debt Management Office has chosen the banks to lead what will be the first of an unprecedented two syndicated offerings in a single calendar month as it prepares to finance a substantial increase in its borrowing requirements.

There is a huge amount of information to take in at the best of times in the capital markets. During a crisis, it can be overwhelming. So, each week, Keeping Tabs brings you the very best of what we in the GlobalCapital newsroom have found most useful, interesting and informative from around the web.

Rabobank exercised a call option on one of its outstanding additional tier ones this week, with market participants expecting redemption to become the rule rather than the exception during the coronavirus crisis.

While emerging market bond investors are spending their days in the Covid-19 crisis battling with poor liquidity, cash calls from end investors, and even the odd new issue, debt relief has remained a threat, albeit only a vague one. But at policy level the topic is of growing importance, and what began as a matter for official institution creditors took a step closer to embroiling the private sector this week. Ross Lancaster, Phil Thornton and Oliver West report.

The European Central Bank (ECB) gave lenders even more of an incentive to use its Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO) this week, dropping the potential rate of funding down to minus 1%. But the unveiling of a new unconditional lending scheme set tongues wagging, with market participants debating which banks might use the money and what they might put it towards, writes Tyler Davies.

When Ecopetrol, which has been talking about bringing a bond for a long time, chose to do so last Friday, after an oil price crash in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, it took the market aback. Fridays, after all, are not when any self-respecting Latin American bond issuer comes to the market. But there is nothing typical about Latin America’s primary markets these days.

Lee Buchheit is a veteran of sovereign debt restructuring and is considered by many to be a world expert in the field. He has worked on debt restructuring among many of the emerging markets countries, including Argentina, Greece and Venezuela. GlobalCapital caught up with him this week to discuss the debt crisis gripping the EM universe, and how private sector creditors should approach requests for debt standstills.

Norwegian Air Shuttle improved the terms of an offer to bondholders for a second time this week, just hours before the deadline for its creditors to agree on a restructuring plan that it hopes will eventually unlock a state rescue.