North America

Takeda Pharmaceutical was the standout issuer as US high grade corporate bond issuance ground to a halt this week, ahead of the July 4 holiday.

Exchangeable bonds are emerging as a key coronavirus tool for corporates — one they can use to monetise stakes in companies they own without having to concede large discounts by selling shares.

US companies sold $19bn of new convertible bonds in June as the rush to tap the market for financing during the Covid-19 global pandemic continued, with little sign of slowing down.

Sir Ronald Cohen, one of the UK’s foremost private equity entrepreneurs, believes the Covid-19 crisis is an opportunity to transform western capitalism into a socially responsible enterprise that values a company’s impact on society as much as its profits. Cohen talks to GlobalCapital about the tremendous challenges facing the global economy, and how it can be transformed for the better.

Equity issuance has surged during the Covid-19 pandemic in both Europe and the US, and one of the sectors that has printed the most stock in the first half of the year is the biopharmaceuticals industry. In the rush for healthcare innovation, banks say they are busy lining up more deals for the second half.

Mexican real estate investment trust (Reit) Fibra Uno will monitor markets as it continues to look for liability management opportunities after pulling a proposed Reg S-only trade last week, the company’s capital markets vice-president has told GlobalCapital.

DirectBooks, which plans to bring a new issuance platform for bond markets, has not ruled out the possibility of a partnership with other providers.

The European equity capital markets are bucking wider equity market fears over a second wave of coronavirus infections in the US and bankers hope sentiment will hold even if global equity indices become more volatile.

German biotechnology company BioNTech has raised $225m via a private placement led by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek, amid growing investor appetite for biotech investments due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Two Asia-focused special purpose acquisition companies (Spacs) are looking to list on the US stock market.

Citi has created a cross-border and public sector solutions (XPS) team, which will be headed by Valentina Antill globally, with Abhishek Kapur taking charge of Asia Pacific.

Each week, Keeping Tabs brings you the very best of what we in the GlobalCapital newsroom have found most useful, interesting and informative from around the web. This week: remote working challenges and opportunities, rethinking discrimination in economics, and how volatility strategies fell apart in the market crash.