Goldman Sachs

The week began with that rarest of things in recent times, a welcoming political backdrop. It was marred, however, by monetary policy meetings from the two most important central banks in the world. While the US Federal Reserve’s second rate hike of the year was a foregone conclusion, it caused the dollar curve to flatten still further, making the euro market even more fertile funding territory than it has been for SSAs. But even so, euros had its own struggles this week, facing what one head of SSA syndicate called “one of the most important and unpredictable European Central Bank meetings for a long time”. Lewis McLellan reports.

Public sector borrowers looking for dollar funding are likely to have to go even shorter than they have been used to after this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, said SSA bankers.

Turkey’s Garanti bank has sold its first ever social bond, a $75m private placement. The International Finance Corporation purchased the bond as part of its Banking on Women Programme.

Chinese used car e-commerce platform Uxin began bookbuilding on Thursday for an IPO that could raise up to $475m.

China-based VCredit Holdings raised HK$1.37bn ($175m) this week after pricing its IPO at the bottom of guidance.

New York Stock Exchange-listed Sea, an online gaming firm, is bookbuilding for its debut convertible bond worth some $400m.

Shares of China Resources Cement Holdings tumbled at the open on Tuesday following an overnight equity block trade that was done at a 10% discount and raised HK$4.2bn ($533.4m).

Matthew Westerman and Julian Metherell, who both spent over 10 years as partners at Goldman Sachs, will run a new private investment firm together with Greek shipping tycoon, Peter Livanos,

SSA borrowers are streaming into the euro market, flooding the early part of the week with deals in an effort to secure funding before a slew of central bank meetings towards the end of the week.

Deutsche Bank is losing its head of Asia equity-linked business, with Keyvan Zolfaghari set to leave the firm for Goldman Sachs.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

Quantitative easing, perhaps the single most important factor affecting bond prices over the past three years, could be coming to a long awaited end this year. Members of the European Central Bank governing council seemed to hint as much this week, causing govvie spreads to gap wider, writes Lewis McLellan.