North America

Companies that pay little tax have suffered worse share price declines during the coronavirus pandemic than the market as a whole — a result that suggests investors may at last be taking notice of this long ignored aspect of corporate governance.

Diversified Gas and Oil, the London-listed US oil and gas firm, has raised £69.4m of equity to help fund a package of potential acquisitions, taking advantage of continued low global oil and gas prices.

Fater Belbachir is joining Citi as head of equities, a year after taking on the same position at Barclays. The US bank is changing the leadership structure of its equities and securities services business (ESS).

Five public sector borrowers are marketing dollar bonds across the curve kicking off what it is expected to be a busy week in the currency.

Chinese hotel company Huazhu Group has returned to the equity-linked market, raising $450m from a bond convertible into its American Depository Shares (ADS).

Chinese company Kingsoft Cloud Holdings has raised $510m after boosting the size of its Nasdaq float.

HSBC Canada issued the most oversubscribed dollar-denominated Canadian covered bond in years on Thursday, and still managed to price 28bp tighter than the Canadian heavyweights.

The top tier of emerging market companies and sovereigns are funding themselves at near pre-coronavirus levels, but there is stark inequality in the market. The vast majority of EM corporates will have to sit out a while longer as funding costs remain prohibitively high for triple- and double-B rated issuers, writes Oliver West.

The record-breaking pace of US corporate bond issuance shows no sign of abating as more than 20 issuers from across the ratings spectrum dashed out of earnings to issue this week, amid red-hot funding conditions.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management makes two SRI hires — Citi appoints Aby for CEEMEA markets — Callaghan joins HSBC for UK M&A

German meal kit delivery company HelloFresh has issued a €175m debut convertible bond to fund growth opportunities after reporting stellar first quarter results, as more consumers dine at home because of the restrictions imposed to help combat the Covid-19 pandemic in its key markets.

Citigroup is determined to emerge as a winner from the Covid-19 crisis and conquer the summit of global investment banking, in the face of any pull to concentrate more on home markets, writes David Rothnie.