A US$610m dual-currency convertible from South Korean chemicals maker LG Chem showed the potential for innovative equity-linked issuance from the country. LG Chem launched three-year convertible bonds split between €315.2m and US$220m tranches on April 10. South Korean issuers typically prefer to sell such instruments domestically, and LG Chem had never previously looked offshore. However, the acquisition of LG Life Sciences the previous year left it looking to monetise a stash of treasury

International equity-linked issuance from Asia more than doubled in 2018, and Credit Suisse used its experience and relationships to do more deals in more countries than any other bank. The bank was a regular feature in the offshore Chinese market, moving quickly to seize a window early in the year, and it also helped issuers in Australia, South Korea and Vietnam raise funds during IFR’s review period. Credit Suisse impressed with a broad range of public deals, covering high-grade and high

Swiss Re had a specific need. The reinsurance giant wanted to replace perpetual bonds that had incorporated an any-time put feature and had been sold to fixed-income investors. “We felt that feature was better suited to equity-linked investors,” said Daniel Bell, head of funding at Swiss Re. The cost would also be lower. The solution was two years in the making and far from simple, requiring equity-linked, hybrid capital, derivatives and fixed-income teams working together with lawye

When issuance falls by 48% in a single year, those with one fighting style find themselves condemned to obscurity. Standing out in a year when most banks have been reduced to a handful of trades should be nigh on impossible, yet the twitching muscles of UBS showed that no two trades need to be alike – and a struggling market is no reason to be unambitious. The slash in activity inevitably is accompanied by a collapse in fees as bankers battle to the last basis point to secure every possibl

Twitter reacted with lightning speed to word that it would be added to the S&P 500 Index. From a standing start, it had raised US$1.15bn from a six-year convertible bond within 48 hours. S&P Dow Jones Indices alerted investors after the close on Monday, June 4 that Twitter would be added ahead of the market open the following Thursday. “We began the process of execution [after the close on Monday], putting the documentation in place, thinking about size, structure and potential pricing o

“National service” is how Allen Appen, head of bond financing at Lloyds, describes the bank’s UK-focused structured finance business. “This group is all about supporting the real economy.” That real economy hadn’t seemed too desperate for support from securitisation in previous years. Even once the stigma of sub-prime receded, central bank liquidity schemes were providing many lenders with cheaper funding sources. But Lloyds had faith that the market would be needed again and had been preparing

The leveraged buyout of Gramercy Property Trust by Blackstone for US$7.6bn was the largest take-private of a REIT in 2018, one of the biggest such trades in the last decade – and it went off without a hitch. Despite the deal’s huge size, Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII was able to raise the bulk of its funding in the commercial property debt markets in October, with a massive US$3bn CMBS sale, a US$1.6bn syndicated mortgage and mezzanine loan and a US$464m asset sale bridge loan

Citigroup led many of the year’s biggest commercial real estate financings for the sector’s largest property owners. It tapped the CMBS market and also used its own balance sheet to win deals when there was no shortage of competition for loans from other banks, thrifts, government-backed lenders and life insurance companies. There is no bigger name than Blackstone in commercial real estate and it was Citigroup that the property giant picked to lead the debt financing on its US$7.5bn leveraged bu

Air Lease changed the arcane world of aircraft finance with a new structure that raises the bar for transparency, efficiency and liquidity. Air Lease was able to raise US$544.87m in July through the sale of Thunderbolt II (TBOLT 2018-A), a new kind of aircraft securitisation that took weeks to price instead of months, opened up its financials to the public and turned illiquid equity notes into tradable securities. “We took the view, along with Air Lease, that you had to do more than just c

Buyouts returned with a bang in 2018 after a relatively quiet 2017, with high-yield issuance volumes from M&A and LBOs reaching €13.35bn – more than doubling the previous year’s total. Deutsche Bank executed more of those deals than any other bank. According to Diarmuid Toomey, head of high-yield capital markets at the bank, sponsors’ tendency to go for big and innovative deals played right into Deutsche’s strength. “We feel we are uniquely positioned in Europe to support them from a high-yi

Proving it had access to the high-yield market was a big win for Uber in 2018 after it reached its US$5bn secured debt capacity. Its bond debut, structured as a private placement, opened another pocket of liquidity on very flexible terms. The bond issue allowed the cash-burning start-up to lock in long-term fixed borrowing in a timely way, helped to protect its interest rate risk in a rising rate environment, and was proof of investor confidence ahead of a planned IPO in 2019. “Before the

US high-yield issuance fell by about a third this year as issuers turned to leveraged loans for more flexible financing. That left investors with slim pickings in junk bonds, where the majority of new issuance – around two-thirds – was from borrowers looking to refinance. As a result, many technology companies got the attention of the buyside looking for deals to buy at attractive rates. “The composition of the high-yield market is such that a lot of the technology companies are in late stage de

ING Groep set new benchmarks for financial issuers in terms of size and maturity with its Green holdco debut, while sticking firmly to its sustainability principles. The offering achieved a rare combination in the Green format for a financial issuer of duration, currency diversification and size via a €1.5bn 12-year bond tranche and a US$1.25bn long seven-year tranche in early November. The euro tranche was the longest in the single currency, while the dollar tranche was the biggest in that

In a marketplace where the definitions of what constitutes SRI are still evolving, Credit Agricole led some of the year’s most innovative transactions. Among those, a unique structure for Societe du Grand Paris gave the clearest sign of how a focus on SRI is changing the behaviour of borrowers. State-owned SGP was set up to finance one of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects, one that will see the opening of four new underground lines around Paris. It sold a €1.75bn October 2028 bond issue i

The past year has been a period of volatility and repricing, market-moving tweets and pulled deals, requiring issuers to be calculated yet nimble. This applied even to covered bonds, often labelled banks’ “rainy day” product. No covered bond navigated this environment better than Nordea Mortgage Bank’s record-setting €2bn dual-tranche, five and 15-year deal in February. “[2017] was very benign, very rosy, it was very easy to be an issuer,” said Ola Littorin, head of long-term funding at Nordea B

In a year of historically tight prints it may seem contrarian to recognise Novo Banco’s €400m 8.5% 10-year non-call five Tier 2 bond. It carries, after all, the biggest coupon of any public euro transaction sold in the financial sector over the period. But that coupon is testament to the execution risk inherent in one of 2018’s most challenging and complex deals. This was not just about capital optimisation: having neared resolution last year, the deal was integral to the bank&r

Citigroup’s forte is the selective use of its balance sheet with a sharp focus on syndicating risk, which came under increasing scrutiny amid volatile financial market conditions, fewer lending opportunities and added pressure to generate income and meet budgets. “Citi’s strength is evident in the depth and breadth of deals it closed, as well as thought leadership demonstrated in bespoke structured financing advisory. For example, bridge-to-bond, liability management and loan/bond/equity combo s