Goldman Sachs

Things just keep getting better for British Telecom. The fixed line incumbent’s shares soared 4.5% on Thursday after it announced final details of its £12.5bn takeover of EE, the UK’s largest and most advanced mobile phone company.

Elis, the French workwear laundry company owned by Eurazeo, has narrowed the price range on its Paris initial public offering, ahead of the offering’s expected closing on Monday.

The month-long gloom in Chinese property credits is finally dispersing after Shimao Property Holdings priced the sector’s first high yield bond of the year on February 3. Not only did the deal attract a huge order book but it also managed to attain solid pricing.

Coal India completed one of the country's largest ECM deals on January 30 with a Rp226.13bn ($3.68bn) divestment of part of the government’s stake. Bankers lauded the trade, which had been two years in the making, and believe it will keep the momentum going for several more share sales that are due to hit the market before India ends its fiscal year in March.

Chinese tech firm Tencent Holdings made its eagerly anticipated return to the dollar bond market on February 4 with a $2bn dual tranche offering that drew a frantic response from investors. That resulted in an 8.5 times covered book, which the issuer was able to leverage to price inside its rival Alibaba.

The Asian high yield market has finally opened up, with issuers pouring in to get a start on their backlogged funding. But as a pair of first-time southeast Asian companies were forced to extend bookbuilding after failing to gain sufficient appetite, bankers said the market was not yet ready to embrace untested and unknown issuers.

The European high yield market on Tuesday keenly accepted the first triple-C rated deals of the year: a buyout financing bond from Swiss carton maker SIG Combibloc and a refinancing issue for Norske Skog, the paper company.

Sweden broke the trend among European sovereigns for longer dated euro issuance this year, by mandating banks for a trade in the belly of the curve on Wednesday. The deal should provide a test case for euro deals at the shorter end since euro curves flattened after the European Central Bank announced it would buy sovereign debt up to 30 years, said SSA bankers.

The month-long gloom surrounding Chinese property credits looks to be finally dispersing after Shimao Property Holdings priced the sector’s first high yield bond of the year on February 3. Not only did the transaction attracted a huge order book, it also managed to attain solid pricing, which paves the way for its peers to follow.

Chinese technology giant Tencent has decided to go ahead with a Reg S/144A transaction while it was in the middle of non-deal roadshow after it wasencouraged by strong feedback from US investors and the recent robust trading sessions.

SIG Combibloc has followed Altice's recent example by demonstrating the European market’s keen appetite for large leveraged M&A deals. SIG has tightened pricing on the loans in its €2.8bn deal and replaced some of the deal's bonds with loans.

HKBN, or Hong Kong Broadband Network, plans to start investor education for its IPO of around $600m from Monday, February 9, according to two bankers on the transaction. Indonesia’s Mitra Keluarga is also expected to hit the road on the same day for its own listing.