HSBC

With equity capital markets at their nadir of summer somnolence, mid-August is the moment at which the year’s rivalry between investment banks can truly be said to have completed its first half, with the second semester not yet begun.

Côte Restaurants, the UK chain of French-styled restaurants being bought out by BC Partners, has avoided general syndication and allocated a £138m leveraged loan with early bird lenders.

Stadshypotek became the second Swedish bank this year to issue a sterling floating rate covered bond, pricing its deal in line with Canadian issuers.

After being left behind by their Asian and Latin American brethren in recent years, CEEMEA borrowers are finally moving towards issuing green bonds in size, writes Steven Gilmore.

HSBC has slashed its forecast for volumes of offshore renminbi bonds and certificate of deposits for the year, as attractive costs of onshore funding steal the limelight from dim sum issuance.

The sharp fall in the renminbi is expected to take a huge toll on offshore bonds in the currency, shutting down the pipeline at least for the rest of the month. But more worrying are the potential longer term consequences if the downward pressure spreads to other Asian EM currencies.

An Emirati financial has mandated banks for a tier one dollar transaction, adding to the Middle East post-summer pipeline.

At least one CEEMEA borrower is hoping to bring that market’s first dollar green bond before year end, and in a size larger that the modest euro prints done so far.

San Miguel Corporation’s SMC Global Power Holdings Corp has mandated eight banks as the company hopes to return to the dollar bond market with perpetual subordinated notes.

HSBC has appointed Michael Bevan as its new head of financial sponsors group (FSG) for Asia Pacific, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

HSBC promoted its latest high profile UK hire, Philip Noblet, to co-head of UK banking, moving Natalie Blyth, the previous co-head, over to commercial banking.

A $550m borrowing for Bank Rakyat Indonesia’s (BRI), which is due to be prefunded by a club of 11 banks, is expected to go into general syndication. Lenders are waiting for Bank Indonesia approval and are targeting signing by the end of August, with the first drawdown in the first week of September.