North America

Singapore-based consumer internet company Sea, whose New York-listed shares have soared by more than 400% this year, is looking to take advantage of that positive sentiment to raise around $2bn from a new equity offering.

The coronavirus crisis, new challengers, technology and capital requirements threaten to shake up the banking sector — and banks are likely to shift business models substantially, according to management consultancy firm Arthur D Little.

Investment bankers have piled up heaps of revenue for their firms this year, but their employers may feel the need not to be too generous with bonuses in the first few months of next year.

Barclays has invited holders of some of its legacy tier two bonds to exchange their notes for cash, as it looks to smarten up its debt capital structure.

Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Xpeng is selling a chunk of new American Depository Shares (ADS) to fund research and development and further expansion.

European banks will have longer than expected to correct the fallback language in their dollar-denominated additional tier ones (AT1s), now that dollar Libor has been given an extra 18 months to live.

Standard & Poor’s cut Braskem Idesa’s credit rating from B+ to B on Friday, placing the rating on negative watch as the Mexican government’s termination of a gas transportation contract disrupted the polyethylene producer’s operations. The rating agency warned the company needs to address its gas supply shortage urgently, but some credit analysts eye a buying opportunity.

Flutter Entertainment, the parent of bookies Paddy Power and Betfair, has returned to the equity capital markets with a £1.1bn share sale to finance its acquisition of a stake in FanDuel Group, the New York-based fantasy sports and online casino company.

Dada Nexus, which operates on-demand retail and delivery platforms in China, raised $450m this week after selling a chunk of new equity.

The dollar bond market is wide open for companies to take advantage of strong demand and a rally in spreads, boosting hopes for a busy end to a record year for investment grade issuance.

Baker Bros Advisors, a shareholder in Chinese biopharmaceutical company BeiGene, has raised $340.1m from a sell-down of the firm’s American depositary shares.

A rotation into some cyclical stocks has lifted equity markets of late. But investor returns overall are still heavily reliant on a small basket of tech stocks with sky high valuations and any retreat from these names in a hurry could prompt a stock market rout.