Goldman Sachs

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) and Citi’s M&A and advisory businesses shone this quarter, thanks to sustained investments in moving up the investment banking table, and to a series of chunky deals where both firms have been prominent. Goldman and Morgan Stanley, still the top two banks in the market, saw advisory revenues flatline in the second quarter.

Of the near 20 borrowers in the leveraged loan market six are due to close this week, including business information provider Mergermarket’s £450m of sterling and dollar loans.

For months investors have been complaining about how far pricing moves from initial price thoughts to guidance and again in final pricing in the corporate bond market. On Wednesday, Vodafone responded with a new approach to marketing. The response, however, was not what those involved expected, writes Nigel Owen.

A pair of three year prints in dollars provoked very different reactions from GC BondMarker voters in the second quarter. Read on to find out more in this week’s BondMarker round-up, which looks at the most notable dollar deals of the last quarter.

Goldman Sachs took flack from the market for its fixed income results on Tuesday, the second quarter running that the once-dominant firm has missed market expectations. Fixed income client execution was down 40% from last year to $1.16bn, following a first quarter when fixed income was up just 1% against a miserable 2016 number.

US cleaning products maker Diversey has accelerated commitments on its €1.6bn-equivalent of loans, backing Bain Capital’s $3.2bn carve-out of the business from Sealed Air, despite one investor in London expressing concern over the deal’s leverage.

Supermarket Income Reit has completed a £100m IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday, though it raised less money than it had hoped. The promoters believe they are offering access to an undervalued part of the UK property market that can provide a strong yield.

Ivanhoé Cambridge, the Canadian real estate company that is the largest shareholder in Gecina, has sold 87% of its allocation of rights in the French property group's €1bn rights issue, through a block trade on Tuesday night.

Italian electricity network operator, Terna, brought its first new issue of 2017 on Wednesday, and benefitted from the current strong demand for triple-B rated bonds. The €1bn 10-year deal had an orderbook of €1.6bn and printed with a new issue premium of 10bp.

Vodafone was the star issuer of last summer, printing jumbo deals which served to kick-start the sterling corporate bond market, which is still going strong. On Wednesday however, they opted for more conservative volumes, printing before the summer shutdown begins. The UK telecoms company also adopted a novel approach to pricing.

Poland’s PKO Bank offered IG investors a healthy pick-up to the Polish sovereign curve with its new four year note on Tuesday.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power grabbed a modest $300m from its 10 year bullet in a busy primary market on Tuesday, tempering its expectations to seal a smaller size at a decent price.