United States

A managing director in Barclays' investment grade bond syndicate team in New York is set to leave the bank.

Global equity markets are suffering from their most brutal week in a decade, as fears over the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus infected financial markets. On Friday morning, both banks and investors were struggling to come to terms with the speed and severity of the global sell-off, and casting doubt on this year’s IPO calendar.

Concerns over the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak on the balance sheets of some of the biggest companies in the world led to four straight days of zero supply in the US high grade bond market this week.

The head of the World Bank has launched an outspoken attack on the European Central Bank’s monetary policy, saying its mass purchases of long-dated sovereign bonds was distorting markets and failed to provide short-term finance.

Sergio Ermotti’s call for improvement in UBS’s investment bank could be undermined by the arrival of his successor as chief executive, writes David Rothnie.

United Hampshire US Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) has kicked off the roadshow for a $323.6m Singapore IPO on the back of chunky cornerstone investor orders, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Twelve of the largest global investment banks reduced their headcounts in equities by 10% last year, leading to one of the “steepest declines in years” in the number of investment bank employees, according to analytics firm CRISIL Coalition.

JP Morgan grabbed the record for the lowest yielding preferred security issue this week, as investors continued to pour cash into the asset class.

ING left its investors bemused on Wednesday, when it decided to pull the additional tier one (AT1) bond it was marketing on the basis of undisclosed information it had received. After the news of its chief executive’s move to UBS quickly became public, the door was left open for the bank to complete the trade.

HSBC’s corporate finance staff have survived its restructuring largely unscathed, but the more ambitious among them will see the bank’s plans as a missed opportunity, writes David Rothnie. And with no answer yet on the identity of the next full-time CEO, the uncertainty is not over.

US corporate bond issuers set a blistering pace this week as crowded into the market in droves after Monday’s Presidents’ Day holiday.

A lack of credible internal candidates and a desire for stability across its divisions led UBS to cast the net wider to find a successor to chief executive Sergio Ermotti. It has appointed ING CEO Ralph Hamers.