North America

Mexican polyethylene producer Braskem Idesa’s 2029s were the worst performing bonds in emerging markets on Wednesday after the country's president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he was analysing whether he could break a contract under which Pemex supplies the company with ethane.

CPPIB Capital came to market for a dollar benchmark on Wednesday, after mandating the deal last Friday. The trade had been postponed to avoid printing in the peak of the volatility sparked by the worsening Covid-19 outbreak.

United Hampshire US Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) has kicked off the roadshow for a $323.6m Singapore IPO on the back of chunky cornerstone investor orders, according to a source familiar with the matter.

CPPIB Capital is moving forward with its five year dollar benchmark which was mandated last Friday but postponed following the hostile market conditions at the start of the week. Bankers away from the deal expect it to go well, given the limited size.

CPPIB Capital, which mandated banks for a five year benchmark on Friday, has postponed the deal in the face of a hostile market rocked by volatility engendered by the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.

Twelve of the largest global investment banks reduced their headcounts in equities by 10% last year, leading to one of the “steepest declines in years” in the number of investment bank employees, according to analytics firm CRISIL Coalition.

JP Morgan grabbed the record for the lowest yielding preferred security issue this week, as investors continued to pour cash into the asset class.

ING left its investors bemused on Wednesday, when it decided to pull the additional tier one (AT1) bond it was marketing on the basis of undisclosed information it had received. After the news of its chief executive’s move to UBS quickly became public, the door was left open for the bank to complete the trade.

HSBC’s corporate finance staff have survived its restructuring largely unscathed, but the more ambitious among them will see the bank’s plans as a missed opportunity, writes David Rothnie. And with no answer yet on the identity of the next full-time CEO, the uncertainty is not over.

US corporate bond issuers set a blistering pace this week as crowded into the market in droves after Monday’s Presidents’ Day holiday.

Ontario Teachers’ Finance Trust has chosen four banks to organise a series of meetings with euro fixed income investors, ahead of what will be the issuer’s first bond in the currency.

A lack of credible internal candidates and a desire for stability across its divisions led UBS to cast the net wider to find a successor to chief executive Sergio Ermotti. It has appointed ING CEO Ralph Hamers.