UBS

UBS has promoted Javier Martinez-Piqueras to head of global equity capital markets, replacing Sam Kendall, who will now lead corporate client solutions in the Americas.

A challenging market backdrop pushed China Vanke Co to go down the floating rate note route for its bond return on Thursday. It wasn’t disappointed, with bankers saying the $650m bond was priced around 15bp inside a hypothetical fixed rate deal.

Keurig Green Mountain enjoyed the best of dollar bond market conditions as investors drank deep before a spike in US Treasury rates sent borrowers scurrying to the sidelines.

German screws and fastenings wholesaler Würth this week found its domestic investor base had stayed loyal after a three year hiatus from the corporate bond market. However, it also found material offshore interest too.

Foreign banks operating in the US could be allowed a more flexible funding structure, according to Randall Quarles, Federal Reserve vice-chairman for supervision. It could lower the cost of trapping liquidity and capital instruments in the intermediate holding companies (IHCs) they had to set up to keep operating in the US.

Two Chinese transactions on Wednesday served as perfect examples of how duration can make a difference. Greenland Holding Group Co’s $500m sub-one year bond attracted a larger-than-expected order book, while China Overseas Grand Oceans Group (Cogo) had to pull a five year trade as a result of insufficient demand.

Talos Capital reduced the size of its stake in Aena, the Spanish state-owned aiport operator, through a €696m accelerated bookbuild led by UBS and Citigroup on Tuesday.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has hired two senior bankers from UBS, including its former head of EMEA M&A Séverin Brizay.

Swiss speciality chemicals firm Sika turned to the equity-linked market this week to raise Sfr1.65bn. The trade was just what investors in the asset class have been crying out for in Europe, but it also served as a nifty corporate financing solution — funding the settlement of a four year long hostile takeover battle with French rival Saint-Gobain.

Swiss biopharmaceutical company Polyphor has bucked the trend of recent European IPOs by pricing its IPO at Sfr38, in the top half of the initial Sfr30 to Sfr40 range, and increasing the size of the deal.

KDB Life Insurance Co bagged a $200m subordinated trade on Monday in its first foray into the international bond market, getting away with the structure despite a volatile backdrop

Polyphor, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, is increasing the size of its IPO by Sfr15m due to “strong demand” from institutional investors.