North America

Swiss telecoms provider Swisscomm found strong demand for its new corporate bond deal. However, investors were very clear on where they saw the value in the deal and the issuer had to pay significant spreads to ensure the deal’s success.

Mireille Dyrberg, the former COO of Nex Group fintech subsidiary TriOptima, has joined data reconciliation firm Duco.

As volatility returned to financial markets, US derivatives exchange operator CME saw record average daily volume for derivative contracts in the first quarter of 2018, beating the same period last year by 30%.

The FANGs, the catchy grouping of high growth tech disruptors, may have made sense in the past but the unique pressures being faced by each business as it matures and the economic cycle turns should lead investors to differentiate more between the technology-enabled stars of the US equities market.

Walt Disney has thrown Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox a lifeline in its battle to acquire the remaining shares of Sky it does not own by offering to buy Sky News, putting pressure on the £22.1bn debt-backed offer for the whole of Sky from rival bidder Comcast.

With Moody’s analysts predicting last week that Tesla would need a $2bn capital injection, high yield analysts have pointed to the company’s Gigafactory as a likely source of collateral, as the flagship facility was excluded from the firm’s covenant package in its last deal.

US beauty retailer Coty announced pricing at the wide end of guidance for its $2.45bn-equivalent of new leveraged loans on Thursday, while reaching the end of the roadshow for $2bn-equivalent of new high yield bonds.

Turkiye Is Bankasi (Isbank) recently signaled its intention to issue, while HSBC Canada has registered a covered bond corporate entity.

High-grade dollar bond supply continued to flow with a flurry of smaller deals this week but bankers see little to cheer about as a disappointing first quarter drew to a close.

It has been a long held belief over the past few years that a return of volatility would be good for equity capital markets. But the speed of its return is causing many investors to give taking risk a wide berth.

A selloff led by worries over tech and tariffs has continued from last week, with some bank strategists beginning to doubt there will be a return to the market conditions seen in January and the second half of 2017.

China’s GreenTree Hospitality Group had to navigate a tough market this week to wrap up its US IPO as volatility spiked and its closest comparable tanked in the secondary market. To pull off its float, the issuer had no choice but to concede on price and size, writes Jonathan Breen.