Morgan Stanley

The pay gap between men and women working in the front office of investment banks is driven more by bonuses paid than the basic rate of pay, according to Emolument data. But some banks say that they are making strides in their efforts to increase the proportion of women in leadership positions.

Portugal attracted more than €5.5bn of demand for the first syndicated deal from a peripheral sovereign since mid-June on Wednesday.

Cigarette maker Philip Morris flagged off pre-deal investor education for an up to Rph26.70tr ($1.92bn) follow-on transaction in its Indonesian subsidiary HM Sampoerna on September 2, with the process set to run for two weeks.

The share price of Paris-listed Ingenico plummeted on Friday, even as the Cac 40 index rose, after it was reported that the firm was considering a merger with UK payment processing company Worldpay.

Portugal will become the first eurozone periphery sovereign to test the post-summer syndication market — but its choice of tenor has been limited by several weeks of turmoil in global markets.

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel has burst back into the market shortly after a summer blackout, raising €600m with a spree of floating rate medium term notes.

NL Financial Investments, the organisation that handles the Dutch state’s shareholdings, has selected eight investment banks as bookrunners and co-lead managers for ABN Amro’s highly anticipated flotation.

Mediclinic, the South African healthcare group, achieved strong pick up on its R10bn ($770m) rights issue to fund its takeover of Cinven’s remaining stake in London-listed Spire Healthcare.

Samsung Bioepis, the pharmaceutical arm of Korea’s Samsung Group, is planning a highly-anticipated IPO on the Nasdaq in 2016, and has dished out mandates for the listing to four banks.

Additional tier one volume in Q2 2015 fell more than $20bn on the previous quarter after Greece and China-related volatility kept issuers at a distance. But as issuance resumes, analysts estimate there is plenty more to come.

The collapse of Afren, the once-proud London-listed oil exploration and production company with three bond issues to its name, is a shocking reminder of the risks investors face in emerging markets, and of how even some of the most sophisticated players in financial markets can get things drastically wrong.

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