North America

Nasdaq this week agreed to buy International Securities Exchange (ISE) from Deutsche Boerse in a transaction valued at $1.1bn in cash and debt, a move that will give it a dominant position in the options market. It also adds another twist to the wider battle for hegemony in global derivatives exchange and clearing.

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) and National Australia Bank (NAB) raised more than €3bn this week in the US dollar denominated covered bond market, nearly doubling supply seen so far this year.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway printed the biggest M&A deal since AB InBev’s jumbo deal in January with a $9bn multi tranche offering that attracted a massive order book and underscored the dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the US high grade market.

Hutchison China MediTech’s (Chi-Med) $100m IPO on the Nasdaq was oversubscribed three days into bookbuilding, even as bankers pinned their hopes on a select group of US funds.

Tata Steel is speaking to banks for a $600m loan to refinance debt related to its Canadian operations, GlobalCapital Asia understands.

Far from a signal of returning strength in commodities, this week’s iron ore surge was due to freak activity in derivatives markets, an analyst has claimed, since daily futures volumes were equal to the annual output of big iron ore producers.

Berkshire Hathaway drove a pre-ECB meeting rush of issuance on Wednesday as the conglomerate wasted no time following its giant seven tranche bond issued in the US market on Tuesday.

Tata Steel is holding conversations with banks to refinance debt related to its Canadian operations. The talks come even as the company is a week away from winding up a $1.5bn refinancing for its Singapore subsidiary.

Hutchison China MediTech’s (Chi-Med) $100m IPO on the Nasdaq has been oversubscribed three days into bookbuilding, according to sources close to the transaction.

CME Group will be the first clearing house to clear interest rate swaptions, starting from next month, the firm has said.

Exchange operator Bats Global Markets and T3Index have launched an index measuring expected 30 day volatility in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), the most frequently traded security in the world.

OpenDoor Trading, a trading platform that aims to improve liquidity in off-the-run US treasuries and treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS), has appointed two senior fixed income officials to its board of advisors.