North America

Nine mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners have invited lenders to join the international loan market debut of Ant Financial subsidiary, Alipay (Hong Kong) Holding. The money will partly be used to support Ant’s bid to acquire MoneyGram.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has settled a charge of spoofing in the US Treasury futures market with two Citigroup traders.

The dollar market for bank and financial issuance has recorded its first week of zero supply in 2017, but still smashed records for the busiest quarter of all time.

US aircraft component maker Rockwell Collins re-opened the dollar market with the biggest deal in its history and propelled high-grade issuance to its busiest first quarter on record.

CPPIB Capital is looking to step across the Atlantic into euros, selecting four banks to roadshow its euro debut. Elsewhere, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) sent out its first request for proposals for the second quarter.

With big, powerful rivals including the syndicated loan market, the European private placement or Euro PP market has its work cut out to establish itself as a genuine alternative for companies looking to raise debt. However, its flexibility and growing institutional investor base mean there are plenty of grounds for optimism. Philip Moore reports.

Those who work in the US private placement market, as it is often referred to, say this is a misnomer. They prefer ‘traditional’ or ‘global’ private placement market and, while the European challenge may be increasing, the numbers suggest they have a point. Richard Metcalf reports.

While the large US insurance companies remain the bedrock of the US private placement investor base, slim pickings elsewhere in the capital markets are pushing other kinds of investors to look at the product. But with demand for paper already far outweighing supply, market participants do not necessarily see this as a boon. Richard Metcalf reports.

The role of the US private placement market in infrastructure project finance has expanded in recent years as investors have become more accommodating, competing with traditional sources of project finance in an effort to place vast amounts of capital amid scarce supply and low rates. Richard Metcalf reports.

A slight rally in higher beta bonds put greater confidence behind a number of projects in both dollars and euros this week, after cheap funding from the European Central Bank and a softer market tone helped slow FIG issuance to a near standstill.

China Renaissance Group and ICBC International Holdings this week unveiled a partnership to provide financial services across mainland China, Hong Kong and the US.

Investcorp, the Bahraini investment house, wants to more than double its leveraged credit portfolio to $25bn, after buying the global debt business from 3i.