Morgan Stanley

A number of Chinese real estate companies kicked off their refinancing for 2020 on Monday, with higher rated issuers tapping longer-dated bonds and the weaker names actively engaging in liability management.

The Export-Import Bank of India clinched $1bn from a 10 year bond on Monday, riding on investor enthusiasm for deals from the country.

Air France KLM has mandated banks for a five year euro bond. The appearance of an unrated issuer so early in the year is being seen as a sign of the market’s strength.

TrailStone Group, the gas and power trader and investor based in London, has closed the year with a €150m revolving credit facility, which complies with the Green Loan Principles.

Guangzhou R&F Properties, a Hong Kong-listed Chinese real estate developer, raised HK$3.7bn ($475m) from a placement on Thursday evening in one of the last ECM deals of the year in the region.

Southpaw takes a sideways look at some of the big events that defined investment banking in 2019.

Ping An Group subsidiary OneConnect Financial Technology has raised $312m from a listing of American Depository Shares (ADS) after trimming and then increasing its IPO.

Investors gobbled up a high yield bond offering by US plastic packaging company Berry on Thursday, encouraging the company to increase the size twice, eventually reaching over €1bn. Berry is the only speculative grade company to issue a major bond this week in Europe, as most issuers stayed away from a market anxious about the UK general election.

OneConnect Financial Technology Co, a unit of Chinese conglomerate Ping An Group, reduced the size and price range of its New York Stock Exchange listing on Wednesday, a day before it was to be priced.

Morgan Stanley has been fined €20m by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) for manipulation of French and Belgian government bond prices. The bank intends to appeal the fine.

Another packaging company is hunting for better financing terms in the issuer-friendly European high yield bond market. Berry Global follows companies such as Crown, Ball, Smurfit Kappa, Owen-Illinois and Ardagh with an ambitious refinancing that could be priced as early as Thursday — the day of the UK general election.

The Netherlands’ Prosus has raised its takeover offer for food delivery firm Just Eat to around £5.1bn. It has brought in a host of banks to finance the bridge facility, but the boss of opposing bidder Takeaway.com called Prosus' bid “derisory”.