Free content

Institutional investors trumping banks is becoming a mantra for the leveraged loan market after Dutch firm Ziggo came to the market with the biggest test for institutional investors in just over five years — a €3.7bn-equivalent term loan ‘B’. The deal's success or failure will determine just how reliant on this financing approach corporates can become.

The most shocking part of the US Federal Reserve’s decision to taper another $10bn of quantitative easing last week was not that it continued steam roller-like with its plan despite the volatility in the emerging markets. It was that it failed to even acknowledge the crisis EM is facing as a result of its actions.

Amid generally lacklustre equity and M&A markets, Macquarie Capital stood out, while Citi shone for its combination of G3 debt capabilities, ANZ most impressed for local bonds and loans, and UBS remains the country’s most complete investment bank. Ben Power and Richard Morrow report.

The country’s banks and trusts are likely to see bad debts mount, which could cause of bankruptcies and risks spawning a credit crunch. Beijing needs to act quickly to prevent this.

—Chris Darbyshire, cio of Seven Investment Management, on the move by NYSE Liffe to launch futures on MSCI Factor Indices.

UBS Securities was in plans to offer onshore total return swaps referencing Chinese A-shares, and separately offer equity-linked structured products via a special purpose vehicle structure, such as a trust or a mutual fund, on the back of a relaxation of propriety trading rules.

R. Martin Chavez, chief information officer for Goldman Sachs in New York, will receive the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Americas Derivatives Awards on April 22. Chavez, who was selected for the award by senior buyside and sellside officials active in the derivatives markets, will be honoured for his contribution to the development of the derivatives market through his role at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, as well as his success in developing Goldman’s Equities Franchise, among other areas. The full list of award categories and nominees can be accessed at www.derivativesweek.com.

I had a hole in the sole of my banker’s brogues which in this, the wettest January since records began, was another deterrent to walking out for a client lunch in the first month of the year. There are other deterrents, namely having no clients to speak of, the hardship of Subsistence Broking in Austerity Britain and the surrender of the asset class I (notionally) broke. With the January sales drawing to a close, however, it was now or never on the new scoobies front so I limped gingerly round to the shoe shop on the corner to confront the problem foot-on.

The wave of CEEMEA sovereigns tapping the euro market before the volatility of this week was hailed by most as a temporary aberration from the norm. But issuers with large funding needs should take this opportunity to start nurturing this market more carefully and become regular issuers in both dollars and euros in the same way that the more sophisticated western SSA issuers operate.

The start of a new year is tough on loans bankers, who have to content themselves with looking enviously at all the business their bond colleagues rack up in January. This year has been no different, with one of my old banking cronies recently feeling the impact of a lack of action.

The Options Clearing Corp. is to launch S&P500 equity index option clearing in Q2, 2014 following regulatory approval to clear the instrument.

A €1.4bn five year bond for the Autonomous Community of Madrid on Tuesday — its largest ever — shows that the new year rally in peripheral eurozone debt has extended from sovereign to regional issuers. With spreads over sovereigns reaching pre-crisis levels, it is time for other regional names to pull off some eye catching deals.