UBS

Europe's IPO market may be winding down, with only small, niche deals still being announced, but block trades are popping. This is likely to lead to a nail-biting finish in the league table race.

Koninklijke Philips, the Dutch healthcare technology company, sold a 12% stake worth €564m in its spun-off subsidiary Philips Lighting on Tuesday through its third accelerated bookbuild in the stock. It was priced at a 3% discount at €32 a share, but traded down on Wednesday and Thursday.

Apax Partners has halved its stake in Sophos, the UK cyber-security software company, to 11.2% with a £315m accelerated bookbuild led by UBS on Monday night.

Chinese financial services provider Far East Horizon priced a subordinated perpetual bond on Monday, grabbing an open issuance window ahead of heavy expected supply. Its deal came with a rather unique structure to qualify for equity credit from the rating agencies.

India’s Lodha Developers International netted $125m on Monday from a tap of its bonds sold back in 2015, using its recent development and growth story in the London market to hook investors.

Chinese issuers are yet again dominating the supply in Asia ex-Japan debt markets, with four firms wooing dollar and euro bond investors on Tuesday.

Sterling high yield bond issuance this year has now surpassed four times 2016’s figure. This week, new borrower Pinewood Studios appeared on stage.

UBS was looking to sell short-dated senior bonds in the dollar market on Monday, as banks began the week by selling defensive trades. But the pipeline is stocked with riskier deals in the run-up to the end of the year.

India’s Lodha Developers International opened books for a tap of its existing $200m 12% 2020s on Monday, more than two years after the original notes were sold.

China’s Alibaba Group Holding, which wowed the debt market three years ago with the largest G3 bond on record from Asia ex-Japan, is preparing for a comeback, mandating banks for its upcoming dollar outing.

Swiss property investor Allreal Holding sold an eight and a half year bond to investors drawn in by the spread.

Thailand’s Gulf Energy Development Co priced its IPO at the top of guidance this week, raising Bt23.9bn ($730.4m) from the largest corporate listing in the country in more than a decade. The deal was swamped with orders, reflecting investors’ eagerness to look beyond Asia’s developed markets for better returns, writes Jonathan Breen.