North America

The Chicago Board Options Exchange on Monday said that it would launch bitcoin futures on December 10, more than a week ahead of competing exchange operator Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group.

Royal Bank of Canada not only found good demand in a larger than average size for its five year sterling covered bond on Friday, but also executed the trade at considerable cost advantage compared with dollars and euros.

Friday’s sharp turnaround in US sentiment left some European corporate bond players unsure as to how their market might open on Monday. But the tone turned out to be positive and US chemicals company Celanese Corp was ready to take advantage.

The votes have been counted and the results are in. The BondMarker voters have delivered their verdict on the Export Development Canada (EDC) benchmark

CME Group, CBOE Futures Exchange and Cantor Exchange have all self-certified bitcoin derivatives contracts with US regulator the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Bankers are calling for a quieter December after the dollar market smashed the all-time issuance record with more than a month to spare as borrowers front-loaded to make way for a jumbo offering from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Irish headquartered US energy technology company Johnson Controls sold the shortest corporate bond deal of the week on Tuesday, tapping into the pool of investor money looking for a safe option into the end of the year.

Ford Motor Credit Co, the financial services arm of the US motor company, and Deutsche Bahn raised a combined €1.5bn from floating rate notes this week, attracting demand from the traditional fixed rate buyer base with four and seven year maturities.

Alibaba Group Holding navigated every roadblock on its way to a $7bn issuance on Wednesday, sealing the second largest corporate bond from Asia after its own $8bn debut three years ago. The unexpected sell-off in tech stocks and US Treasuries posed only a small challenge to the tech giant’s debt market return, writes Addison Gong.

Lead banks have scheduled a December date for the syndication of a €3bn equivalent multicurrency loan package that is supporting PAI and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation’s leveraged buyout of bottling company Refresco.

TerraForm Power, the former SunEdison renewable energy yield company, priced two tranches of high yield bonds on Tuesday after increasing the overall size of the offering from $1bn to $1.2bn.

Saudi Aramco’s jumbo IPO is taxiing towards take off, though the timing and any co-listing locations along with Riyadh have yet to be revealed. London and New York’s exchanges are eager to host a co-listing, with Toronto, Hong Kong and Singapore also in the frame for what promises to be the biggest ever IPO, valuing the company at $2tr.