Cirsa gambles IPO on strong hand after Brainlab folds
Spanish gaming company Cirsa looks to have played its cards right, with its €453m IPO multiple times subscribed just an hour into the four-day bookbuild, though caution prevails as the deal follows two recent cancelled listings in Europe that started strongly.
Societe Generale gains ground in fixed income trading push
Societe Generale’s drive to expand fixed income trading is starting to bear fruit, as the French lender pushes ahead with plans to diversify its markets division beyond the structured equity derivatives business that has underpinned its trading revenues for years.

NTT DC sparks REIT revival hopes in Singapore
Data centre operator NTT DC REIT is set to end Singapore's IPO drought with an offering backed by a cornerstone investment from the city-state's GIC, the first time the sovereign wealth fund has invested in a local listing.

Sterling corporate market wakes up
Only a week after EDF signed the first part of its exceptional £4.5bn deal with private credit investor Apollo Global Management, and in doing so highlighted the lack of public supply for high-grade corporate investors, the sterling market has roared back to life with unusually high demand for what is often considered a relatively shallow market.

Jezz Farr
I have a degree in fine art; sculpture, actually. I don’t think it offered much in preparation for a life in financial services communications but it was fun. One thing I learnt early on is that a finished piece rarely looked much like the original object in my mind’s eye. But that was ok. I always felt part of the art was the evolution of an idea.

Societe Generale’s drive to expand fixed income trading is starting to bear fruit, as the French lender pushes ahead with plans to diversify its markets division beyond the structured equity derivatives business that has underpinned its trading revenues for years.

Several banks are preparing to set aside misgivings about cryptocurrencies with the launch of their own stablecoins in the weeks ahead as they seek to take advantage of an imminent change of law in the US, which has until now tried to maintain a firebreak between the two worlds.
Ukraine has a trump card to play in restructuring negotiations with holders of its GDP-linked warrants, according to the lawyer who advised Greece in 2012 on its €200bn restructuring.
Top US banks have boosted their dividend payout plans after passing the Federal Reserve’s annual stress test – with quarterly payouts up 20% on average from previous levels and up 48% from three years ago, just after the pandemic.

Adani Group is gearing up for record borrowings from the rupee market as it readies the first public bond offering by its flagship company since executives from the group were indicted last year in the US.
Only a week after EDF signed the first part of its exceptional £4.5bn deal with private credit investor Apollo Global Management, and in doing so highlighted the lack of public supply for high-grade corporate investors, the sterling market has roared back to life with unusually high demand for what is often considered a relatively shallow market.
Poland’s return to the green bond market this week after a more than six-year hiatus was welcomed by investors as the sovereign advances its climate commitments.

SoftBank Group's US$4.21bn-equivalent US dollar and euro senior unsecured deal was over four times subscribed at one point on Wednesday, with investors attributing the strength of demand mostly to its low loan-to-value ratio and various sources of liquidity.

IFR hosts a comprehensive programme of conferences, seminars and roundtables throughout the year, providing authoritative insight into the trends and outlooks for specific regions and asset classes.

UK financial technology company Ferovinum has secured a US$550m funding line from Pollen Street Capital and a bank in what is claimed to be the first asset-backed securitisation of wines and spirits.

Australian fintech company Zip completed its 10th consumer loans securitisation on Wednesday, the no-grow A$300m (US$195m) Zip Master Trust Series 2025-1, which indicated improved investor confidence in the recently beleaguered buy now, pay later asset class.

With sovereign shareholders continuing to push multilateral development banks towards securitisation and other “originate-to-share” approaches, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank have moved into the sector’s asset-backed vanguard.
Activity in the European CLO primary market shows no sign of slowing down ahead of the July 9 deadline for tariff deals with the US, as managers tout a range of new issues and resets to investors.

With sovereign shareholders continuing to push multilateral development banks towards securitisation and other “originate-to-share” approaches, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank have moved into the sector’s asset-backed vanguard.

Ivory Coast has added to momentum in the sovereign sustainability-linked debt market with the launch of a World Bank-assisted framework that could make the cocoa producer the first sub-investment-grade country to issue a bond indexed to its emissions performance.
Poland’s return to the green bond market this week after a more than six-year hiatus was welcomed by investors as the sovereign advances its climate commitments.

Banks are working to combine debt financing for data centre and energy projects in the US, creating multibillion US dollar green debt deals that could debut in the market in the coming months.

The growing sovereign debt swap market has finally thrashed out its first set of voluntary “practice standards”. Market participants have been expecting a set of principles comparable to those for green and other labelled bonds administered by the International Capital Market Association for more than a year .
Spanish gaming company Cirsa looks to have played its cards right, with its €453m IPO multiple times subscribed just an hour into the four-day bookbuild, though caution prevails as the deal follows two recent cancelled listings in Europe that started strongly.
A burst of activity in Hong Kong and China boosted Asia's equity capital market in the first half, despite uncertainty over geopolitical tensions and the threat of US tariffs.

Data centre operator NTT DC REIT is set to end Singapore's IPO drought with an offering backed by a cornerstone investment from the city-state's GIC, the first time the sovereign wealth fund has invested in a local listing.

Six issuers are raising as much as HK$13.3bn (US$1.7bn) from Hong Kong listings, as the city's equity market continues its blazing start to the year.
Walgreens Boots Alliance is premarketing the US$4.25bn-equivalent buyout debt package linked to its international business ahead of the official launch into general syndication this month.
Syndicated lending in EMEA totalled US$608.7bn in the first six months of the year, an increase on the US$598.6bn raised a year previously, according to LPC data, as the threat of tariffs, trade wars and rising geopolitical tensions failed to disrupt the flow of deals.

Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) has closed its latest financing tied to ESG metrics at US$1.56bn, following a blowout response from nearly three dozen lenders in what is the country’s most widely syndicated loan for a bank borrower.
Bankers have taken heed of the market-stopping tariff-induced volatility from April, cramming a huge number of deals into the European leveraged finance primary and largely clearing the decks before a new tariff deadline on July 9.
Clock watching
ROBERT C TOWNSEND coined the famous phrase about consultants: “They waste time, cost money, demoralise and distract your best people, and don’t solve problems. They are people who borrow your watch to tell you what time it is and then walk off with it. Don’t use them under any circumstances.”
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Read the latest stories from the magazine IFR 2590 - 5 Jul 2025 - 11 Jul 2025
5 Jul 2025 - 11 Jul 2025
A very minor new high for the EUROSTOXX 600 with the market having run into trend resistance off highs from March. It has been an incredible rebound for stock markets in general but could be running out of momentum here. S&P futures have posted an inside day here with a sharp 0.8% loss. Japanese and Chinese markets closed today.
