North America

A staggering amount of capital has been raised by special purpose acquisition companies this year, but there is growing concern that the glut in supply will lead to many of the vehicles overpaying for M&A targets or being unable to find companies to buy.

Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (CCDJ) issued a rare and well subscribed five year euro covered bond on Tuesday, which was priced inside fair value. The outcome was similar to a recent deal from National Bank of Canada, but is not expected to boost supply prospects.

China-based Energy Monster, a mobile device charging company, has kicked off the roadshow for its Nasdaq listing. It is eyeing up to $218.7m from the deal.

CNP Assurances found favourable pricing in dollars this week, when it ventured into the Reg S market for its second sale of restricted tier one (RT1) capital.

Grupo Bimbo, the Mexican food company that says it has gained millions of new customers during the pandemic on the way to posting record sales and Ebitda, will prepay $600m of global bonds maturing in 2022 using proceeds from a bank loan.

Magnum Opus Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company (Spac), has raised $200m from a New York Stock Exchange IPO.

Two Mexican corporates — real estate investment trust (Reit) Fibra Uno and leasing company Operadora de Servicios Mega — re-opened bonds on Thursday as supply trickles into the Latin American primary bond market. But only Fibra Uno was able to tighten pricing from initial price thoughts.

Chinese question-and-answer platform Zhihu has raised $522.5m from its US IPO, after pricing the deal at the bottom of the marketed range, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The London Stock Exchange Group made its debut in the dollar bond market on Thursday as bankers welcomed a wave of deals related to a jump in mergers and acquisitions activity.

The Covid pandemic has delayed a lot of progress in the capital markets, but bankers say the industry is still on track to meet Libor transition deadlines. Investors have consented to the Bank of Nova Scotia transitioning the basis of its sterling covered bond from Libor to Sonia, while Westpac is seeking consent.

NatWest Group is looking to smarten up its capital structure by repurchasing up to $6.7bn of its subordinated debt from investors, including two legacy instruments. The offer arrives a week ahead of a deadline for UK banks to submit official clean-up plans for their old-style securities.

Hong Kong-based Jeneration Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (Spac), is planning to raise $300m from a Nasdaq IPO.