North America

Green bonds took centre stage in the US corporate bond market this week, as issuance began to mount again after the recess for earnings blackouts. No less than three deals paired green and conventional tranches.

The Financial Conduct Authority’s plan to look at helping US-style special purpose acquisition companies list in London smacks of short-termism. Even in the US, the epicentre of the Spac craze, there is a growing clamour for the Securities and Exchange Commission to toughen listing rules.

Alphawave, the Canadian company that develops technology for the semiconductor industry, is targeting a valuation of up to £3.2bn, according to the terms of its IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

CDP Financial, one of Canada's largest public pension asset managers, has mandated banks to arrange calls with investors for its first green bond.

Mexican industrial parks operator Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta began investor calls on Monday as it looks to become the latest Latin American issuer to join the sustainability-linked bond (SLB) club. Though bankers continue to see LatAm companies obtaining pricing benefits from SLBs, a handful of recent deals are trading below re-offer in secondary.

Hong Kong-based Summit Healthcare Acquisition Corp has set the ball rolling for a Nasdaq IPO of about $200m.

US corporate bond issuance slowed to a trickle this week, due to earnings blackouts, leaving the market with $52bn of deals to show for April, a far cry from last year's $234bn at the height of coronavirus safety fundraising.

PSP Capital, the debt issuance arm of Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board, is planning a dollar benchmark — its first international bond ever.

Laurentian Bank has wasted little time getting its newly set up covered bond programme a top rating with DBRS and is now undertaking a roadshow with plans to sell its first deal in Canadian dollars. It is also looking at subordinated issuance in local currency.

The pull of a big fee pool and global reallocation of capital and resources are prompting banks to rethink the way they serve clients in the technology sector on both sides of the Atlantic, writes David Rothnie.

Chinese companies have raised equity in the US at a record pace this year. The deal flow has quashed fears that a hostile White House would dissuade China’s hordes of technology startups from listing on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

Senator Marco Rubio is the latest Republican in the US to launch an attack on what conservative voices have recently dubbed “woke capital,” apparently putting the GOP at odds with an investment world that has embraced ESG.