Morgan Stanley
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Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, has made headlines again. First came the announcement that Cheung Kong Holdings and Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI) were acquiring the UK’s Eversholt Rail Group in a multi-billion dollar deal. Then, just hours later, CKI raised HK$4.64bn ($599m) to part-fund the acquisition through a top-up placement, in a deal priced close to the top of guidance thanks to momentum driven by an order from a single global long-only fund. -
FirstRand, the South African bank, today launched an accelerated bookbuild for 102m of its shares and 23.8m shares of its affiliate, the insurer MMI. The blocks are worth about R4.93bn ($424m) and R700m ($60m) respectively.
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Morgan Stanley reported lower than expected fourth quarter profits on Tuesday. Earnings per share, excluding accounting adjustments, fell from 50 cents in the fourth quarter 2013 to 39 cents, which was short of consensus expectations of about 50 cents. Despite this, the bank says it is on track to benefit from a continued fall in funding costs, further falls in risk weighted assets and compensation ratios.
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El Corte Inglés, the privately-owned Spanish retail group, has raised €600m from the high yield bond market, in a move that investors believe makes it less likely that the company will follow through on the idea of floating in Madrid.
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State Grid Corp of China, which claims to be the world's largest utility, issued its first euro bond on Monday, a €1bn deal comprising seven and 12 year notes.
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Bankers handling the divestments of India’s Rural Electrification Corp (REC) and Power Finance Corp (PFC) have completed international roadshows for both companies and are now waiting on the government to give the greenlight for the share sales.
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Isolux Corsán, the Spanish energy and construction firm, plans to float on Spain’s main stock markets in a deal that could be worth €600m.
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Rabobank’s inaugural additional tier one marked not only the first such deal from a Dutch issuer, but the first AT1 deal of the year. Though the deal was priced into a market full of uncertainty, its sturdy reception, if less ecstatic than previous trades, suggests that investors are approaching the asset class with more sobriety than in 2014.
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Dutch cable company Ziggo accelerated its dual currency bond issue to price it on Wednesday after its sister company, Virgin Media of the UK, had sold the first bond of a restructuring plan involving four Liberty Global cable subsidiaries.
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China Huarong Asset Management and China Railway Signal & Communication Corp (CRSC) are lining up to take the Hong Kong market by storm this year, with both companies looking to bring multi-billion dollar IPOs soon.
