United States

Governments have had little choice but to load up on debt to save their economies. With the crucial support of low interest rates and vast quantitative easing programmes, there is little immediate threat to debt sustainability. But as Jasper Cox reports, nothing lasts forever.

An extraordinary year for the US corporate bond market ended on a high this week, as Jerome Powell gave a dovish statement at the end of the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting which left participants certain the Fed had the market's back.

This year proved to be one of the most dramatic on record for corporate financiers as volumes rose from the ashes of the market sell-off. David Rothnie examines some of the themes that defined the year and looks ahead to 2021.

US-listed Chinese companies have raised more than $12bn from equity investors in the past month, with iQiyi becoming the latest to simultaneously sell a convertible bond and price a follow-on offering of its American depositary shares. With valuations soaring for many of these stocks, bankers expect more issuers to jump into the market in 2021, writes Jonathan Breen.

Chinese streaming platform iQiyi has kicked off a combined convertible bond and follow-on offering that could raise around $1.7bn.

Cellectis, the French gene-editing company, has launched a $100m US capital raising to help fund its research and development operations. The sector has had a record year for issuance in 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic has concentrated minds on global healthcare innovation.

This week in Keeping Tabs: the former governor of the Bank of England on value and values, The New Republic on law and value, reminiscing about the last crisis, and a pub snack en vogue.

Nio has launched a US follow-on offering that could raise up to $2.71bn, becoming the third Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker to tap the equity market in less than two weeks.

CVS Health Corp jumped at the opportunity to conduct a liability management exercise this week, as US corporate bond issuance began to tail off amid signs of investor caution in the run-up to the year’s end.

China’s Xiaopeng Motors, an electric vehicle (EV) maker, leveraged on a big boost in interest in new energy stocks from investors to raise $2.16bn from a follow-on offering of its American Depositary Shares. Jonathan Breen reports.

Singapore-based consumer internet company Sea, whose New York-listed shares have soared by more than 400% this year, is looking to take advantage of that positive sentiment to raise around $2bn from a new equity offering.

The coronavirus crisis, new challengers, technology and capital requirements threaten to shake up the banking sector — and banks are likely to shift business models substantially, according to management consultancy firm Arthur D Little.