HSBC

Costain Group, the UK construction and engineering firm, has unveiled a £100m capital increase to shore up its balance sheet following a disappointing set of 2019 results.

Once again, corporate bond markets have staged a recovery after a shutdown of several days as asset prices plummeted in response to the growing coronavirus outbreak. Three industrial companies plus JP Morgan issued bonds in the US on Tuesday, which “all went exceptionally well” according to a head of syndicate in London. Danone launched on Wednesday the first euro corporate issue of the week, paying a high spread but small new issue premium.

SBI Cards and Payments Services has priced its Rp103.4bn ($1.4bn) IPO at the top of the range and was allocating the stock to investors on Wednesday.

India’s Tata Steel and Birla Carbon have decided not to syndicate their chunky loans, amid reluctance from the bookrunners to sell down their positions in a slowing market for deals.

Siemens Gamesa, the wind power provider, has tapped into the nascent market for ESG derivatives with a three year interest rate swap executed by HSBC.

UK electricity distributor Electricity North West, which manages electricity networks in the north west of England, has started marketing US private placements. However sources are worried the market will not cope with pricing transactions amid wild swings in Treasury yields.

Holders of Argentine sovereign bonds have until March 16 to identify themselves to the issuers as the government prepares to restructure $67bn of foreign law sovereign bonds.

Bank of Montreal reopened the dollar market for Yankee banks this week, using ‘shadow books’ to quickly wrap up the sale of its floating-rate note.

Rating: Aaa/AAA

Thierry Roland has been picked to lead HSBC’s new RWA Optimisation Unit, where the bank will put assets that do not meet its return requirement.

Lancashire County Council raised £350m ($453.5m) of five year cash on Thursday through the UK Municipal Bonds Agency platform. It is the first local authority to do so since the MBA was set up.

Optivo, the UK housing provider, has mandated banks for a long maturity sterling deal, a day after a compatriot housing association found healthy demand for a similar 23 year note in the currency.