North America

The Province of Ontario raised $1.75bn with a rare seven year dollar benchmark on Thursday. The transaction shared the market with a five year from Japan Finance Organisation for Municipalitities.

The convertible bond market has become one of the hottest areas of the capital markets with a huge surge in issuance in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. But there is growing concern among investors about the capacity of the market to absorb all of this new paper.

There is a huge amount of information to take in at the best of times in the capital markets. During a crisis, it can be overwhelming. So, 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.

In this round-up, the relationship between the US and China deteriorates, the US warns its pension fund against investing in Chinese equities, and Mainland regulators vow to develop the financial markets of the Greater Bay Area.

Bank of America became the first global commercial bank to print a Covid-19 response bond this week.

Chinese stocks are in Donald Trump’s firing line again, after the US president announced he is “looking very strongly” at any companies not following local accounting guidelines.

US bond bankers want the US Federal Reserve to clarify its timetable to start buying investment grade corporate bonds, as investors are starting to show signs of fatigue after a torrent of high grade issuance.

European banks are set to follow sovereign and supranational institutions and begin issuing senior bonds dedicated to fighting Covid-19 under existing ESG frameworks.

$14.6bn of secondary block paper priced in Europe and the US this week, according to Cortex data, as sellers offloaded large stakes in listed companies. They were taking advantage of a rally since the bottom of the pandemic sell-off in March. However, falling earnings estimates mean some fear that sellers may be divesting stock because they believe the market is overvalued.

ArcelorMittal’s $2bn recapitalisation with equity and mandatorily convertible bonds has traded badly in the aftermarket, leaving investors nursing heavy losses and raising fears of wider market contagion. Aidan Gregory, Sam Kerr and Owen Sanderson report.

Dada Nexus, an operator of Chinese on-demand retail and delivery platforms, and Legend Biotech Corp both set the ball rolling for Nasdaq IPOs this week.

Genscript Biotech Corp is planning to spin-off and list subsidiary Legend Biotech Corp in a potential $100m Nasdaq IPO. The firm submitted listing documents to the US regulator on Wednesday.