North America

Bank of Nova Scotia was set to price a €1.25bn three year covered bond tap 25bp wider than indicative secondary levels on Thursday, its third foray in euros this year and the 19th Canadian covered bond to be issued globally in 2020. The deals are in keeping with an exceptional volume of cheaply priced Canadian public ssector bond issuance and highlight a unique set of challenges for the country's borrowers, related to sinking oil prices, an inflexible central bank and the impact of Covid-19.

US-listed AMTD International floated on the Singapore Exchange this week, debuting dual-class shares on the southeast Asian bourse through a secondary offering.

Yankee bank and insurance names took centre stage in the dollar market as US banks prepared to give their first insight into the impact of the coronavirus with the arrival of bank earnings season.

High grade companies stormed the dollar bond market again this week, as asset prices stabilised, helped by White House health adviser Dr Anthony Fauci raising hopes that the US could soon turn the tide in the battle against Covid-19.

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) was the latest public sector agency to head to the euro market this week as it raised €1.5bn on Wednesday with a 10 year benchmark. While the deal was fully subscribed, the order book was not huge and the pricing did not tighten from guidance, indicating that the market may be slowing.

Infrequent issuers are slowly returning to the Swiss franc market. During the past week, Eurofima brought its first Swissies deal in six years, while biotech firm Lonza printed its first bond in any currency since 2017.

Luckin Coffee seemed too good to be true. It was.

A group of banks that worked on Luckin Coffee’s IPO is facing questions after an alleged multi-billion renminbi fraud came to light last week. But some of the limelight has already been drawn away by another possible fraud case in China and a controversial short report, creating wider uncertainty around US-listed Chinese stocks. Jonathan Breen and Rebecca Feng report.

Bank of Montreal (BMO) on Tuesday became the third Canadian covered bond issuer to take advantage of an improvement in Aussie dollar issuance conditions following a relaxation in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s repo requirements.

'We are all in this together' is not a view Europe’s investment banks will recognise when they compare themselves with their formidable US rivals, writes David Rothnie.

Mexican petrochemicals company Grupo Idesa is giving bondholders more time to participate in a distressed debt exchange, saying that the “current environment” had hindered the ability of the bonds’ "custodians" to tender.

A trio of agencies hit screens with dollar deals on Tuesday. Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten and CDP Financial tapped the three year part of the curve, while the Ontario Teachers’ Finance Trust reopened a five year market that had been shuttered by coronavirus-related volatility.