United States

AT&T racked up a monster order book on Thursday, as the US telecoms giant hit the market with a $22.5bn M&A financing.

India’s Nirma is set to hit the US term loan B market for financing to back its bid for Tronox Alkali, a US-based company. The flexibility that comes with selling into an institutional market pushed Nirma to pick a combination of a US TLB and a bond for its acquisition, said bankers.

Bain Capital’s Diamond, the cleaning chemicals business, had to remove a controversial restricted payment clause before printing the triple-C rated bonds of its new financial structure on Tuesday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Monday granted LedgerX, a digital currency exchange and clearing platform, a derivatives clearing organisation license.

When one thinks of volatility, few asset classes stand out as much as cryptocurrencies. But the fledgling nature of these decentralised digital currencies has meant that interested derivatives users have had to navigate equally volatile attitudes from global regulators.

Following a US Treasury report on regulating the financial system, published last month, the chief executives and chief financial officers of the big US banks lined up to praise the reforms’ potential — though they could be the last nail in the coffin of international regulatory co-operation.

Just one borrower occupied European high yield bond pipeline at the start of this week giving the impression the market is about to slow for summer. Bain Capital’s hygiene product supplier Diamond, is out on a roadshow.

A US pension fund has filed a class action lawsuit against ZTO Express and the banks that underwrote its $1.4bn IPO on the New York Stock Exchange last year.

Kroger and Alimentation Couche-Tard led a flurry of issuance by dollar borrowers to exploit red hot demand for high grade paper. With the bulk of corporate America in earnings blackout, the retailers demonstrated the strength of investor sentiment.

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced in May that it was to acquire Patheon for $7.2bn, including $2bn of net debt. Thermo Fisher expected to finance the deal with $5.2bn of debt and $2bn of equity. On Tuesday it put a big dent in the debt figure with a €2.6bn four tranche corporate bond offer.

Fallen angels — corporate borrowers that lose their investment grade ratings — have become a key source of supply in global high yield bonds markets over the years. But there are signs that, particularly in Europe, such supply is ebbing away as corporate balance sheets improve. This is driving HY investors elsewhere to seek new credits.

Bain Capital is calling on the recent demand for lower rated high yield bonds in Europe to fund the acquisition of US cleaning products supplier Diversey Care.