United States

A slight rally in higher beta bonds put greater confidence behind a number of projects in both dollars and euros this week, after cheap funding from the European Central Bank and a softer market tone helped slow FIG issuance to a near standstill.

China Renaissance Group and ICBC International Holdings this week unveiled a partnership to provide financial services across mainland China, Hong Kong and the US.

Investcorp, the Bahraini investment house, wants to more than double its leveraged credit portfolio to $25bn, after buying the global debt business from 3i.

A global equities sell-off and political concerns hit the dollar new issuance market this week as trades gapped wider of new issue and borrowers remained on the sidelines.

European bank issuers of additional tier one (AT1) have been abandoning the euro market in favour of dollars. But some have had to start embracing equity conversion structures to join in because it is one of the few ways to account for AT1s as debt and avoid a mark-to-market swap.

Rosenthal Collins, the US futures broker and clearing company, has promoted Robert Turner to be its new chief operating officer and Patrick Carey to be in control of a new function, strategic implementation.

New deals marketed this week by US borrowers Owens-Illinois and Federal-Mogul pushed reverse Yankee issuance to 25% of the €22bn of euro high yield issuance so far in 2017.

A clutch of China’s technology stars had been expected to dazzle the market with their IPOs this year, but the evolving regulatory environment means many are ambivalent about whether to list onshore or off. Market watchers say fintech players could be pushed to the US, even as other tech firms consider an A-share IPO. John Loh reports.

Volkswagen has returned to the public straight bond markets in its own name for the first time since September 2015, when it was swept from the market by its emissions test cheating scandal. Bond markets being what they are, a multi-billion euro blowout is likely.

ABN Amro attracted a healthy book for a large $1.5bn tier two trade on Monday, as the FIG market filled up in both dollars and euros after a busy week of potential risks.

French asset manager Tobam Core Investments opened its first international high yield fund on Monday. The €100m fund aims to go against the grain.

FTSE Russell, the global index and data company, has hired Sean Smith as managing director of derivatives licences.