Global merger and acquisition activity has slumped since the start of the latest war in the Middle East and senior bankers said a number of deals have been paused. But they are optimistic that dealmaking will bounce back as corporates have become more accustomed to geopolitical bumps. Bankers said corporate bosses are also assessing changing deal structures to reduce risks.
Nomura is investing to expand in macro trading as the Japanese bank bets that the volatility that has rocked financial markets in early 2026 is set to continue.
Data centre owner Nebius raised US$4bn from convertible bonds on Tuesday to back the massive capex programme required to deliver on AI infrastructure agreements, including a new US$27bn deal signed with Meta Platforms the previous day.
Hong Kong's bourse operator has proposed new measures to bolster initial public offerings, a move that is expected to further strain banks, law firms and auditors already under scrutiny from regulators about the quality of listing applications.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group's DCM and syndicate desks will have breathed a collective sigh of relief after securing a place on a semi-government ticket for the first time in almost two years, having been shut out since the regulator launched a probe into its bonds and trading businesses.
Electronic Arts has cut the bond portion of its record-breaking leveraged buyout financing in favour of bigger loans, helping to support tighter pricing on the three tranches it is issuing across US dollars and euros.
Nexstar sells US$5.1bn of junk bonds to back Tegna purchase
Nexstar sold its first junk bond in over five years on Monday when it raised US$5.115bn to back its controversial acquisition of rival Tegna as the broadcaster seeks to better compete in a sector undergoing structural changes.
Baker Hughes and Norwegian conglomerate Akastor are moving forward with an up to US$231m Nasdaq IPO of HMH, their subsea drilling equipment joint venture, after nearly two years in registration.
WisdomTree prints US$603.8m CB for acquisition, redemptions
In a sign of investors’ optimism about WisdomTree’s announced UK acquisition, its shares rose after the company raised US$603.8m late Monday from a new convertible bond to fund the purchase and partial redemption of existing CB issues.
Three European banks are seeking senior unsecured funding in the US dollar market, the currency broadly seen as the best bet in what are still unstable conditions.
I played rugby as a schoolboy. I wasn’t too bad, playing for East Yorkshire a few times at under-16 level. My position was scrum-half, which meant I had a lot of the ball. And being in the thick of things, one soon learns to be nimble and quick-thinking to avoid being crushed by rampaging forwards.
War derails M&A action, but pipeline keeps bankers optimistic
Global merger and acquisition activity has slumped since the start of the latest war in the Middle East and senior bankers said a number of deals have been paused. But they are optimistic that dealmaking will bounce back as corporates have become more accustomed to geopolitical bumps. Bankers said corporate bosses are also assessing changing deal structures to reduce risks.
Private credit software lenders up against the clock
Private credit lenders have a software problem that could flash “fatal error” within three years as some 47% of loans are set to mature, according to Houlihan Lokey.
Profit-squeezed credit traders take aim at platform fees
Faced with a historic profit squeeze, banks’ credit traders have set their sights on one of the biggest costs weighing them down: the hundreds of millions of dollars they pay every year in trading venue fees.
US Fed's Basel proposal slashes capital requirements
The US Federal Reserve’s new Basel III endgame proposal for regulating bank capital will cut Common Equity Tier 1 capital requirements by 2.4% for the largest US banks. That is more than a 20-point swing from the initial Basel III proposal three years ago, which had called for boosting capital requirements by more than 19%.
Nomura bets on market volatility with macro trading push
Nomura is investing to expand in macro trading as the Japanese bank bets that the volatility that has rocked financial markets in early 2026 is set to continue.
Electronic Arts has cut the bond portion of its record-breaking leveraged buyout financing in favour of bigger loans, helping to support tighter pricing on the three tranches it is issuing across US dollars and euros.
Three European banks are seeking senior unsecured funding in the US dollar market, the currency broadly seen as the best bet in what are still unstable conditions.
US electronic connector manufacturer Amphenol Technologies tested investor sentiment on Tuesday when it launched the first euro bond of the week as other corporates put deals on pause.
SSA trio eye deals after Trump extends Hormuz deadline
Three SSAs are mulling syndications across the euro and US dollar markets this week after US president Donald Trump pushed back his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by five days on Monday.
Korea National Oil Corporation is marketing the first public US dollar bond deal out of South Korea since the outbreak of the Middle East conflict in late February.
RedZed pulled its planned 16th RMBS offering on Friday, the indicative A$800m (US$570m) non-conforming RedZed Trust Series 2026-1, a casualty of elevated market stress in reaction to the Iran war.
UK fintech Abound, formerly known as Fintern, managed to get its public ABS done in a volatile market, with its pricing reflecting the fact that the small and relatively young consumer lender was making its maiden transaction.
Nationwide Building Society priced and retained a £1.75bn, three-tranche RMBS called Silverstone 2026-1 on Wednesday, in a continuation of its stock and drop strategy that it last executed nine months ago.
European CLO deals dry up as war adds to AI software fears
It was supposed to be the year of the CLO. But first software names that populated many of the underlying assets were hit by AI disruption fears, and then the Middle East war kicked off – mostly freezing activity in the sector.
The International Finance Corporation is spearheading a pair of notable new sustainable finance initiatives in Latin America. The World Bank Group’s private sector lender is both a lead investor in the region’s largest biodiversity bond to date and arranger of its first sustainability-linked loan for a sub-national government.
Geospatial data 'game-changer' for sustainable finance
Geospatial "big data" is increasingly used in sustainable finance to map physical assets and link them to environmental and social risks, such as extreme weather, water stress and geopolitical hot spots.
HSBC has quietly revived term debt issuance from a regional Spanish development bank, arranging the first identified deal from Institut Catala de Finances in nearly 13 years, according to LSEG data. The modestly sized €15m private note, due at the end of May 2031, pays a coupon of 3.2%.
ING sees sustainable finance growing despite Middle East war
ING said that momentum will carry sustainable debt issuance through the volatility caused by the Iran war and expects the market to return to growth in 2026.
Baker Hughes and Norwegian conglomerate Akastor are moving forward with an up to US$231m Nasdaq IPO of HMH, their subsea drilling equipment joint venture, after nearly two years in registration.
Drone maker Aevex has filed for an NYSE IPO that will raise funds to repay debt and also allow backer Madison Dearborn to begin taking profits on its investment.
Private equity firm Advent International took advantage of a recent spike in Trustpilot Group shares to effectively exit an investment it made in 2019.
EA finalises tranche sizes and pricing ahead of close
Banks have further increased the loan portion by US$1.375bn-equivalent across dollars and euros in a debt package backing the buyout of video game maker Electronic Arts, while concurrently decreasing the size of the secured notes offering by the same amount, having raised some US$45bn in orders, according to a banking source.
Electronic Arts looks set to deliver a stunning result for the leveraged finance capital markets, with investors looking past a war in the Middle East and a software sector ravaged by AI risk to throw more than US$20bn of orders into the debt backing the largest LBO in history.
The syndication of the more than US$5bn debt package backing software provider Qualtrics’ acquisition of healthcare analytics company Press Ganey Forsta remains viable despite market noises of a postponement, according to a source.
European high-yield and leveraged loan default rates declined in February, driven largely by technical factors rather than an improvement in credit fundamentals, Fitch Ratings said.
Business development companies associated with asset management heavyweights BlackRock and Apollo Global Management are among the funds taking hits from pandemic-era loan vintages, adding pressure to private credit firms already grappling with concerns over portfolio quality and liquidity.
Goeasy shows that it’s still too easy to hide a credit loss
The easiest way to hide a credit loss is not to deny it. It is to say it has not yet arrived. That was one of the quiet accounting failures exposed by the global financial crisis: losses were often recognised too late, only after the damage was obvious. IFRS 9 was supposed to fix that by forcing lenders to book expected credit losses earlier, using forward-looking judgment rather than waiting for the wreckage.
I played rugby as a schoolboy. I wasn’t too bad, playing for East Yorkshire a few times at under-16 level. My position was scrum-half, which meant I had a lot of the ball. And being in the thick of things, one soon learns to be nimble and quick-thinking to avoid being crushed by rampaging forwards.
A slowdown in dealmaking isn’t the only risk for banks from the Middle East conflict
Investment banks continue to expect strong first-quarter revenues. On Tuesday, Citigroup guided to mid-teens year-on-year growth in investment banking and markets revenues, and Bank of America guided to double-digit growth for both business lines. A few weeks ago, JP Morgan provided a similar upbeat message.
Macaskill on Markets: Who needs margins? Synthetic equity lending pumps up risk
A dramatic but little appreciated rise in the volume of equity total return swaps is being accompanied by an erosion in the margins charged by bank prime finance desks to clients such as hedge funds.
MFS and its discontents: when the security package triggers a run
The collapse of Market Financial Solutions follows a familiar and concerning pattern. According to documents submitted to London’s High Court at the commencement of its administration process, MFS may have double-pledged assets, potentially leaving a collateral shortfall of £930m. Loans to MFS totalled £1.16bn, and there was only £230m of “true value” available in the collateral accounts.
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