UBS

UBS has appointed Damien Brosnan and Peihao Huang to the newly created positions of co-heads of ECM Solutions, Asia, effective immediately, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital Asia.

Centrica, the UK energy supply, trading and production company, raised £700m of new capital on Thursday to support its credit ratings with an intraday placement, but that was less than the £750m it set out to raise, and its share price fell 9.8%.

UBS remains on track, despite a disappointing first quarter, and is promoting its next generation, writes David Rothnie.

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co (HDFC Life) has mandated four houses to run its IPO, which will be India’s first listing by an insurance company.

Italy’s scramble to prop up its weaker banks has halted what had been a strengthening rally in periphery bank debt last month, with the most recent deals all widening this week.

Barclays has this evening executed a R13bn ($900m) accelerated bookbuild in shares of Barclays Africa Group, its separately listed South African subsidiary, as the first stage in its already announced plan to divest the bank. The trade was covered in 35 minutes and multiple times oversubscribed.

Vodafone has mandated six banks for the IPO of its Indian arm, which could raise up to $2.5bn, according to sources close to the situation.

BNP Paribas managed 10.1% increase in profit to €1.8bn for the three months to March despite weaknesses in its investment banking division.

Indonesian power producer Cikarang Listrindo started pre-deal investor education for its $300m-$400m IPO on Thursday and is expected to open books by mid-May.

A flotilla of IPOs reached harbour safely this week, through waters calmed by the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing medicine, and whatever other magical ingredient has made financial professionals feel so much better since Easter. But one debutant tripped up and another IPO was pulled.

JD.com’s inaugural outing in the international bond market could not have veered any further from expectations when the notes tanked in the secondary market. An overzealous pricing strategy was the main culprit for the poor performance, but divisive credit ratings for the Chinese company did not help either. Rev Hui reports.

The recent run of good news on IPOs was broken on Wednesday when Telepizza made a dire debut on Bolsa Madrid after its €550m flotation, priced on Tuesday.