JP Morgan

Wednesday brought red back to equity traders' screens after a buoyant Tuesday, but trading action confirmed the satisfactory execution of this year’s first two substantial equity capital markets deals in Europe: the €1.03bn block trade in NN Group, the Dutch insurer, and French aerospace firm Safran’s €650m convertible.

Blockchain, the technology underlying bitcoin, is coming to a back office, and clearing house, and bank, and front office near you. Instead of one authority keeping records, everyone will. That’s the idea, anyway, of a wave of start-ups rushing to build workable applications. How will clarity emerge from this ferment, and just how will it change the business of capital markets? Jon Hay reports.

Crashing commodity prices and an increasingly intense focus on compliance and reputation has made launching international bonds in Africa much tougher over the past year. Many banks are wondering whether the risks are still worth the reward. Francesca Young reports.

The Inter-American Development Bank is the latest issuer to enter a red hot dollar market, after KommuneKredit and the Asian Development Bank raised money on Wednesday.

Westpac NZ launched a sterling senior bond on Wednesday and Santander UK will soon follow with a debut holdco deal, as FIG's first signs of life in 2016 favour the UK market.

Europe's equity capital market lost no time in hitting back after the scary start of Monday, when world markets tumbled after China's stockmarket went into freefall and Saudi Arabia and Iran's war of words became more rancorous.

Hong Kong real estate giant Swire Properties and the Korea Development Bank have launched the first investment grade bonds from Asia for 2016, opening books for dollar-denominated transactions on January 6.

The Asian block market started with a jolt this week as Hanwha Techwin Co was forced to trim a W282.1bn ($235m) sale in Korea Aerospace Industries. The deal stumbled during bookbuilding after a separate sale in the company was marketed to the same investors at the same time, setting a negative tone for future block trades in South Korea.

If Monday was an ugly beginning to 2016 in the equity capital market, with a 7% fall in Chinese stocks dragging world indices down, Tuesday has been much cheerier, even bringing deals in Europe.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten started January with a bang, roaring out of the blocks with an oversubscribed book on the year’s first euro deal, and printing its largest ever 10 year benchmark in the currency.

Kuwaiti petrochemicals firm Equate has signed $6bn of loans, with a range of lenders from different regions joining the five underwriting banks.

Manulife US Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) is reviving its plans to list in Singapore after shelving an IPO in 2015, and is aiming to launch in the first half of this year, according to a source close to the deal.