Morgan Stanley

While US borrowers dominated senior unsecured issuance this week, Dutch lender NIBC Bank was also able to return to the euro senior unsecured market after an absence of almost three years.

Colombia priced a long-dated dollar trade on Wednesday, a $1.5bn 30 year that followed the Dominican Republic's 10s and 30s dual trancher on Tuesday. A focus on price over size enabled Colombia to achieve its lowest ever coupon for a 30 year and although some investors felt pricing was tight, demand was over $5bn.

Colombia priced the Latin America's second long-dated dollar trade on Wednesday, following the Dominican Republic, with a $1.5bn 30 year. Borrowers are rushing to lock in long-dated borrowing costs before the US raises rates.

Goldman Sachs has promoted investment banking veteran Stephen Wong to the newly created role of chairman of IB for Hong Kong.

The world’s largest utility State Grid Corp of China issued its first euro-denominated bond on January 19, with a €1bn ($1.2bn) deal comprising seven and 12 year notes.

Bancassurer FirstRand on Tuesday sold 102m of its shares and 23.8m shares of its affiliate, the insurer MMI, in an oversubscribed accelerated bookbuild.

Chinese snackfood maker Hubei Zhouheiya Food, backed by private equity firms Tiantu Capital and IDG Capital Partners, plans to raise $500m in an IPO in Hong Kong.

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.

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.

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.

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.