North America

Once again, corporate bond markets have staged a recovery after a shutdown of several days as asset prices plummeted in response to the growing coronavirus outbreak. Three industrial companies plus JP Morgan issued bonds in the US on Tuesday, which “all went exceptionally well” according to a head of syndicate in London. Danone launched on Wednesday the first euro corporate issue of the week, paying a high spread but small new issue premium.

Bond syndicate bankers covering Latin America were not ruling out a return of new issuance in the next two weeks as the market tone improved on Tuesday after a bleak Monday. But with fears around negative fund flows growing, it may be hard to persuade investors to put cash to work even if valuations look attractive.

On what some EM investors described as the worst day for markets since 2008, Latin American bond buyers were left staring at a sea of red as the region’s fixed income markets were stunned into dysfunction by the sharpest fall in oil prices since 1991.

Credit Suisse is set to move a financial institutions debt syndicate banker from his role in Europe to a position the US in the second quarter of 2020.

Mexican hotel operator Grupo Posadas became the first Latin American issuer to suffer a ratings action as a direct result of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, with both tourism industry and capital markets conditions worsening while a bond maturity looms.

Mexican non-bank lender AlphaCredit has launched a consent solicitation, as it seeks to make amendments to the indenture governing its 2022 notes.

Bank of Montreal reopened the dollar market for Yankee banks this week, using ‘shadow books’ to quickly wrap up the sale of its floating-rate note.

Financial industry lobbyists have told the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that its proposed revisions to swap dealers’ and major swap participants’ capital requirements will have “a significant negative impact on the US swaps market”.

The US high grade bond market sprang back to life this week, as borrowers rode out a wave of volatility, helped by cash-rich investors and nimble pricing strategies.

Thierry Roland has been picked to lead HSBC’s new RWA Optimisation Unit, where the bank will put assets that do not meet its return requirement.

JP Morgan’s latest high-level reshuffle has put a crack team of dealmakers at the top of the firm, and opened room for new leaders to come up. But keeping senior bankers happy can be difficult, writes David Rothnie.

Mexico’s state-owned electric company Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) turned to Taiwan’s bond market this week to sell a dollar bond — its latest foray into the Formosa bond market.