North America

Leucadia National Corporation, the holding company of Jefferies, has sold 48% of its beef business, all of its automotive equity interests, and changed the name of the company to Jefferies Financial Group — a set of moves which ought to free the firm to take advantage of merchant banking opportunities, while giving investors a clearer business to focus on.

A trio of euro borrowers picked up a combined €8.5bn on Tuesday, seemingly without testing the limits of demand in the market.

The Ontario Teachers’ Finance Trust (OTFT) on Tuesday outdid its dollar debut last year for size, as its second ever international trade clocked in at $2bn.

Online game streaming platform Huya is set to launch an up to $200m listing of American Depository Shares (ADS), filing a prospectus with the US stock market regulator on Monday.

The euro market is back in gear after a few weeks of slow issuance. Three borrowers have mandated deals for Tuesday’s session but one opted for a one day execution, coming on Monday to get ahead of the rush.

A rare name will grace the dollar market on Tuesday, coming ahead the minutes of the Federal Open Markets Committee meeting, expected to be released on Wednesday.

Bank of Montreal raised £400m ($569m) of five year funding in covered bonds on Monday following £1bn deals from Santander UK and Nationwide last week. But with fewer sterling covered bonds redeeming after this month, primary activity is expected to slow down.

The US president says China will lower trade barriers and make a deal with Washington, the recently merged banking and insurance watchdog officially launches, and Vanguard makes five exchange-traded funds (ETFs) available in RMB and dollars in Hong Kong.

China Resources Land bagged Rmb4bn ($635.7m) from a two tranche Panda bond on Wednesday, marking its fifth outing in the market. But the issuer had to change tack at the last minute after investor demand built up for the longer-dated note.

General Mills put the investment grade corporate dollar market back on a more positive course this week with a tightly priced trade that paved the way for a rebound in supply.

US health products and services company PerkinElmer priced a €300m corporate bond this week, nearly two years after its debut in the currency. The deal saw good demand as the company paid a spread of 60bp over mid-swaps for the three year notes.

Private equity-owned ION Investment Group has been named as the high bidder of the two that have made last minute bids to beat Temenos in the race for UK trading technology company Fidessa.