North America

A pair of issuers reopened the 10 year part of the dollar curve for sovereigns, supranationals and agencies this week, but despite both trades gaining plaudits there is still scepticism over whether a $2bn-plus sized deal is possible.

Bayer and Monsanto are circling each other as they both seek acceptable terms for a merger that would create a world leader in crop science. For the equity capital markets, the deal holds out the possibility of one of the world’s largest ever rights issues.

Additional tier one paper took centre stage in the FIG market this week, with risk appetite firmly back on and new supply set to ramp up in the coming sessions.

Brent and WTI oil futures have risen to above $50 for the first time since November and July respectively, amid bullish short term positioning by aggressive managers and supportive supply data this week. But while traders called this a ‘psychological’ level for the commodity, physical markets are still sounding a note of caution.

The US has finally engaged with the internationalisation of the renminbi after years of stubbornly ignoring the currency’s rise. Market participants have welcomed the Rmb617m ($94.15m) worth of instruments issued by the New York branches of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), but say the developments are long overdue. Rev Hui reports.

Credit Suisse has promoted its head of US leveraged finance capital markets to vice chairman of acquisition and leveraged finance capital markets, which is a recently created role.

Rentenbank joined the rush for dollars on Wednesday as Inter-American Development Bank and British Columbia set pricing on deals announced the previous day.

US banks face tighter but potentially confusing restrictions on booking swaps business overseas, say lawyers, after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) adopted a rule that applies multi-faceted criteria to applying cross-border margining requirements on uncleared swaps.

Intercontinental Exchange has promoted a long-serving senior official at the firm to chief technology officer.

Monsanto has rejected Bayer’s all-cash bid of a $62bn enterprise value as “incomplete and financially inadequate”, but left the door open to an improved offer.

KommuneKredit grabbed the first chance of the week to print five year dollars while other public sector issuers are set on 10 year deals.

Replenishing the default fund of a failed central counterparty (CCP) and addressing single point of entry at its holding company are some of the biggest challenges regulators face in developing a resolution framework for systemically important CCPs, according to a report by the Clearing House and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.