North America

Convertible bonds are continuing to attract more mainstream attention, following dramatic outperformance of the asset class over the past year. This is driving new investors to the market.

HH&L Acquisition Corp has bagged $360m after increasing the size of its New York Stock Exchange IPO, in yet another sign that Asia-focused blank cheque companies are surging in popularity.

This week in Keeping Tabs: do investors want companies to fail on sustainability-linked bond targets? And what what happens to the economy under a Joe Biden presidency in the US?

Huge demand for exposure to biotech companies among US equity investors is continuing to drive UK firms to list on the other side of the Atlantic through an IPO on the Nasdaq. On Thursday, Immunocore, a late-stage biotech firm focused on T-cell technology, priced an enlarged offering on the exchange and, on Friday, UK healthcare investor Syncona announced it was exploring a US IPO for one of its portfolio companies.

Apple printed the biggest US corporate bond so far this year, as companies roared out of earnings blackouts this week to lock in cheap financing.

The Province of Alberta made a rare appearance in the Kangaroo market on Wednesday, printing A$100m with a February 2046 bond. Daiwa Capital Markets ran the books.

Goldman Sachs is trying to steal a march on rivals as it looks to turbo-charge its European business by leading the listings of the region’s most vibrant start-ups, writes David Rothnie.

Morgan Stanley swung by the euro market this week to raise €1.75bn of new senior debt. The move was unexpected given that pricing for international issuers remains more favourable in dollars.

Cloopen Group Holding, a cloud-based communications provider, launched its New York Stock Exchange IPO on Wednesday night.

Mexican quasi-sovereign Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) offered little to no concession on its first 144A/Reg S deal since 2016 on Tuesday, attracting a broad range of investors to an order book that peaked above $10bn.

Global equity markets were propelled to new all-time highs at the end of last year when various drug companies announced that they were close to releasing vaccines to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. However, with the vaccine roll-out slow, new mutant variants of the virus raging and governments striking a sombre tone, investors need to prepare for the fact that they may have bought in haste.

Singapore’s ride hailing start-up Grab Holding has further increased the size of its term loan B to $2bn following solid traction in the US market.