IFR's daily digest of views & news for capital markets professionals
Banks hired for inaugural German Federal-regional bond
Five banks have been hired on Tuesday to manage the first ever joint bond issue between the German Federal Republic and its regions, with the deal expected to come to market as early as next week.
IFR Comment: Bernanke at Fed "a lot longer than he wanted"
You can’t get any clearer signal than that from President Obama on the prospect of Bernanke leaving the Fed when his term expires early next year.
IFR Comment: Hurray for Slovakia
Hurray! A deal in CEEMEA at last! OK, it’s not a market opener as such, given the transaction in question is a ¥30bn 3s/5s offering from the Slovak Republic. But it’s the first sniff of new supply from the region this month.
SolarCity amps up pressure on short sellers
Elon Musk once again has seemingly defied market expectations. A month after a surprise US$600m CB deal for electric-car maker Tesla, the enigmatic chief of all things future is seeking to defy critics with a US$175m raise from the planned sale of convertible bond by SolarCity, the solar-power utility Musk took public late last year.
EQUITIES: Two advising Thailand's True on US$1bn IPO
Credit Suisse and UBS are advising Thai telecoms operator True Corp on the feasibility of setting up and listing an infrastructure fund. A domestic bank is also expected to be involved.
Analysis: Why Citi wants to rack up US taxes
(Reuters) - Over the past few years, Citigroup Inc has been grappling with an unusual problem – how to incur more US taxes.
China likely to end 9-month IPO freeze at end of July - sources
(Reuters) - China is likely to resume approving initial public offerings at the end of July, sources quoted a senior regulator as saying on Tuesday, after a freeze since October as part of efforts to crack down on wrongdoing and restore investor confidence.
Factbox: Likely candidates to replace Bernanke at Fed in 2014
(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is widely expected to step down when his second term at the helm of the US central bank expires on January 31, 2014. If history is any guide, President Barak Obama will pick a candidate to succeed the one-time Princeton University professor sometime during the summer, allowing ample time for the Senate to consider the nominee before a final confirming vote. Here is a quick look at the likely leading choices:
Hong Kong investigates HSBC, other banks for inappropriate market conduct
(Reuters) - Hong Kong’s de facto central bank said on Tuesday that its investigation into possible benchmark rate manipulation has been extended to include HSBC and a number of other banks.
In China, they built it... and no one came
A building boom tied to China’s economic rise shows no signs of abating, despite slowing growth and excess capacity in some cities. Are commercial ‘ghost towns’ a sign of further trouble to come?
IFR Comment: ECB still in search of a SME solution
Identifying a problem is sometimes easier than trying to deliver a solution. For the eurozone the problem in question is the starved state of financing for SMEs especially in the peripheral countries.
UK charges ex-UBS trader Hayes in Libor investigation
Britain’s fraud prosecutor on Tuesday charged former UBS trader Tom Hayes with eight counts of conspiracy to defraud, as part of a global investigation into the manipulation of benchmark interest rates.
BONDS: ICICI follows Caterpillar back to Dim Sum
The return of two overseas issuers this week has underlined the appeal of the offshore renminbi as an alternative to the volatile global funding markets.
IFR Top 250 Borrowers Special Report 2013
The past year has been characterised by spread-tightening across the credit spectrum. This has left investors scrambling for yield in a low-rate, low-return market, with a few changing the way they viewed their mandates.
From this week's IFR Magazine
Released on Fridays
16:00 London / 11:00 New York
Upfront
Irrational despair
Has Big Ben struck midnight to end the bond markets’ ball? Judging by the scale of the credit markets sell-off in recent weeks investors certainly think so.
Top News
Banks eye sovereign bond reductions
European governments look set to lose the backing of their biggest group of creditors, with some of the region’s banks likely to trim the €1.72trn they own in low-yielding government debt in coming quarters, in a bid to boost profitability.
China IPO 'breakthrough' gets mixed reviews
The China Securities Regulatory Commission is preparing IPO reforms that would allow market forces, rather than regulators, to dictate the key terms of future listings.
More pressure on Hong Kong IPOs
Rising market volatility claimed another victim, as Hopewell Hong Kong Properties, a spin-off of the property and hospitality arm of Hopewell Holdings, pulled its Hong Kong IPO of up to HK$6.05bn (US$780m).
VW gives 2012 CBs a facelift
European equity-linked issuance had dropped off so much in the second quarter that any deal is an event, but the return of 2012’s convertible bond poster child Volkswagen truly was a significant moment for this small but cherished market.
Investors see through D-Bond marketing spiel
Germany has been doing its utmost to hype up its new-fangled regional funding initiative, the Deutschland Bond, but that has not stopped bank strategists calling the product a political charade and investors cursing its complexity.
Workday CB capitalises on post-IPO surge
One of 2012’s hottest US IPOs, human resources software company Workday, has taken advantage of highly favourable financing terms in the US convertible bond market to raise up to US$600m, almost as much as it raised from its October IPO.
Coty IPO breaks issue
After a long drawn-out and somewhat turbulent stay in the US IPO pipeline, Coty completed its US$1bn flotation last week. Following a 12-month dual-track process, Coty’s IPO drama continued into the aftermarket as the newly-issued shares immediately broke offer on Thursday, despite assurance from syndicate managers that the deal was well-covered.
Secondary PE offers alpha opportunity
As part of the never-ending search for alpha, institutional investors are taking a closer look at secondary opportunities in the private equity space and other private markets, where they are able to pick up assets at significantly improved valuations, and often with a lower risk profile than is available in primary markets.
Chinese banks step up for M&A deals
A jumbo loan backed by a standby letter of credit facility for Chinese pork producer Shuanghui International has underlined the ability of China’s banks to support overseas acquisitions.
Banorte rides Mexico ECM wave
Mexico’s third-largest bank Grupo Financiero Banorte is awaiting the green light for a follow-on of up to US$3bn that could become the biggest deal in the country this year. The transaction also highlights the country’s burgeoning attraction versus former investor favourite Brazil.
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