JP Morgan

Top US bankers are optimistic about their investment banking businesses for the start of 2021, after a stellar 2020 during which their clients rushed to financing markets to help them get through the Covid-19 crisis, and government and central banks provided essential support.

Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the London-listed investment fund focused on music royalties, is embarking on yet another share sale to finance its bulging pipeline of acquisitions.

CPPIB Capital hit screens on Wednesday for a 10 year benchmark, confident that there is demand at that tenor despite a recent rush of similar deals.

Gazprom, the Russian state oil and gas company, this week sold a dollar bond amid growing concerns about US sanctions on the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom.

The Kingdom of Bahrain launched a $2bn triple-tranche bond on Wednesday, the second sovereign trade from the Gulf region this year. Both trades have, somewhat unexpectedly, been done by junk-rated governments.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise has raised around Rp11.7bn ($160m) from a qualified institutional placement, drawing a swell of demand that pushed pricing above the floor.

Singaporean ride-hailing company Grab Holdings has boosted the size of its term loan B after receiving a strong response from the market, setting the stage for more Asian start-up firms to head to the US for financing.

JP Morgan has made new appointments to its China-related businesses, including picking the chief executive for its majority-owned onshore securities joint venture.

Two supranationals are set to hit the market for their first dollar benchmarks of 2021 on Wednesday.

France set a new order book record with its new 50 year syndicated bond on Tuesday. Two other public sector borrowers joined the sovereign at the long of the euro curve.

Sovcombank, one of Russia's largest private banks, this week raised its debut social bond — still a rare format among emerging markets borrowers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The bond follows an ESG loan the bank raised just weeks ago.

Turkey and Bahrain took to primary markets to raise bond funding on Tuesday. But the appearance of two high yield credits has not driven unqualified enthusiasm for all borrowers in that asset class.