UBS

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co has raised $1.81bn from its listing of Global Depository Receipts, becoming just the second company to use the London-Shanghai Stock Connect scheme.

Armin Peter has been made head of sustainable banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at UBS.

AIB Group priced a €625m additional tier one (AT1) bond in euros this week, following several volatile days of trading for the asset class. The deal surpassed expectations in terms of size and pricing, having been run along with a tender offer for one of the Irish lender’s existing AT1s.

The strong response from banks to Charoen Pokphand Group’s acquisition-related loan is not a true reflection of conditions in Asia’s syndications market — despite what some may say.

China Huadian Corp priced a $500m bond on Monday, riding on the improvement in market sentiment to reopen the perpetual market for state-owned enterprises.

Shanghai-based China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co has launched its IPO on the London Stock Exchange, firming up the deal size and the syndicate group on the listing. The deal was covered on Friday, its first day of bookbuild.

Chinese property developer Sinic Holdings (Group) Co launched a two year dollar bond on Thursday after receiving international credit ratings this week for the first time.

Weaker trading conditions have done little to shake expectations for a new wave of additional tier one (AT1) supply, writes Tyler Davies, with three banks having reopened the market in emphatic fashion this week, issuing €3.1bn-equivalent of debt into more than €20bn of demand.

UniCredit jumped into the euro market to raise senior funding at a pricing level it found much more familiar than recent elevated levels this week, while BPER Banca gave investors their first chance in several months to buy a new issue from a second tier Italian bank.

Conditions in the financial institutions bond market worsened this week but plenty of senior and subordinated bonds still got away. With credit spreads unpredictable, the supply outlook remains favourable, said bankers.

A wide gamut of deals across asset classes filtered through the Swiss franc market this week. Gyrations in swaps allowed Crédit Agricole to come flat on euros on Thursday, while also giving investors a great deal on a long end Lausanne trade.

Bonds of Unilever, the consumer goods firm, jumped on Thursday, despite it being a day of risk aversion in the markets, after it announced plans to merge its Dutch and UK entities. Unilever billed the move as simplifying its corporate structure to prepare for what it expects to be "the increasingly dynamic business environment that the Covid-19 pandemic will create" — as bankers predict industrial shake-ups will lead to mergers and acquisitions.