Goldman Sachs

Two Chinese online platform businesses will start pre-deal investor education for their Hong Kong IPOs on Thursday, according to bankers.

Guangzhou R&F Properties Co raised $200m from a tap of its existing bonds on Tuesday, opting to reopen an old deal amid a challenging market environment.

Rentenbank on Tuesday sold what Dealogic data shows is its largest ever euro benchmark, while the State of North Rhine Westphalia visited the long end of the curve.

DS Smith, the UK packaging company, has offered to buy Spanish rival Europac, with £1.65bn of financing underwritten by US banks already prepared for the transaction.

Swiss telecommunications group Salt Mobile was this week looking to replace most of its debt capital structure with Sfr2.085bn-equivalent (€1.8bn) of new bonds that have weaker covenants, as the high yield market overcomes a recent bout of eurozone volatility.

Genscript Biotech Corp, a leading life sciences service provider and drug developer, has raised HK$2.39bn ($304m) after upsizing a follow-on offering, according to a source close to the deal.

China-based VCredit Holdings, which provides online consumer finance, launched bookbuilding for its IPO on Tuesday, with proceeds of up to HK$1.58bn ($201m) in reach.

The UK government has resumed the reprivatisation of RBS, the British bank that was nationalised during the financial crisis, having launched a £2.6bn block trade.

Home24, the German online furniture retailer backed by Rocket Internet, has opened the books on its IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Goldman Sachs and three other major banks have signed up to the project to build a joint electronic bookbuilding system for the US investment grade market, joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, and JP Morgan and giving the new platform a strong shot at total market dominance. Goldman’s merchant banking arm sold Ipreo, the main rival to the new project, last week.

Chinese used car e-commerce platform Uxin began investor education for a potential $500m Nasdaq IPO on Wednesday, said a banker on the deal.

Germany’s JAB Holdings has agreed to buy the UK’s Pret A Manger for a reported £1.5bn, though lenders are unsure whether this marks the beginning of a wave of consolidation in the ready to eat food market.