North America

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.

South Africa's Investec has launched a proprietary secondary loan trading desk in New York, having recruited a senior trader to lead it.

After Mexican conglomerate Femsa became the first issuer from the Americas to sell a sustainability-linked bond (SLB) in euros last week, Latin America bond origination bankers say they expect the region’s companies to continue to embrace the format.

Goldman Sachs made its second visit to the Maple market this year on Thursday. The Canadian dollar market is enjoying its busiest year in four years for offshore issuance.

Chinese health insurance and healthcare crowdfunding platform Waterdrop has kicked off pre-deal investor education for its US listing, according to a source close to the IPO.

BOC Aviation has sold a $750m bond through its US subsidiary, pricing its third dollar outing of the year at wider levels than some fair value estimates from analysts.

Chilean miner CAP and Mexican car parts supplier Metalsa on Thursday became the latest in a string of Latin American companies to price dollar bonds not only at the tight end of guidance, but inside the indicated range, as bankers say investors are being coy with bookrunners about their pricing expectations.