United States

The banking landscape in Spain and the UK is set to change, amid pressure on banks' profitability, after a flurry of announcements this week.

NRG Energy has priced a roughly $3.8bn five tranche bond offering — including the first ever sustainabilty-linked notes from a US issuer — to finance its acquisition of North American energy retailer Direct Energy.

Deutsche Börse has beefed up its offering in sustainable finance and corporate governance services through purchasing a majority stake in ISS, the ESG data and analytics provider.

As investors sought gold and silver as a hedge against inflation and uncertainty, investment banks with the capabilities to act in these markets benefitted. Some made more than $100m in precious metals in the third quarter, according to Coalition Greenwich.

Gregg Lemkau is leaving Goldman Sachs at the end of the year and will head up an alternative investment firm linked to tech entrepreneur Michael Dell. Jim Esposito will take over as joint head of the investment banking division at Goldman.

The Financial Stability Board has said that it will look at policies to address systemic risk when it comes to financial intermediation involving non-banks, as it seeks to learn lessons from the market meltdown at the cusp of the coronavirus crisis in March.

Chinese housing-related platform operator Ke Holdings, which listed in August in New York, is back again to the equity market. It is looking to raise around $2.6bn from a follow-on offering.

Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo has kicked off a multi-billion-dollar equity fundraising exercise, taking advantage of a sharp rally in its share price this year to aim for as much as $4.85bn.

Chinese beauty company Yatsen Holding has set its New York Stock Exchange IPO in motion, kicking off bookbuilding for a $616.9m listing.

This week in Keeping Tabs: what a Biden administration means, the people behind the BioNTech vaccine, the link between commercial property and bank equity, and a proposal for dealing with debts in poor countries.

Convertible bond issuance in the Americas is poised to top $100bn in 2020 as the year enters its final straight and companies look to use the momentum of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election and the prospect of a working Covid-19 vaccine on the near horizon to raise capital.

A Joe Biden White House offers an opportunity for international and regional multilateral financial institutions to lobby for extra financing to deliver essential assistance to countries hit by Covid-19, according to experts.