Rupak Ghose
The AI boom has been backed by investor enthusiasm – and their money – on an unprecedented scale. Investment bankers have high hopes of a huge year for deals. But just like the broader economy, will this be a K-shaped market for tech deals?
Barclays is aiming to increase market share in advisory and capital markets to help hit higher returns targets for this year and 2028, after a decent last quarter for its investment bank on the back of strong growth in trading revenues.
Morgan Stanley has rehired top technology banker Michael Grimes, naming him as investment banking chairman.
Standard Chartered's chief financial officer Diego De Giorgi is leaving the bank with immediate effect to join Apollo as a partner and head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The former investment banker had been widely seen as a top candidate to take over from Bill Winters as Standard Chartered CEO.
SpaceX has acquired its sister company xAI for US$250bn, in a deal that will provide some much-needed financial support to the lossmaking AI and social media platform – but which could complicate the rocket maker’s plans to launch the world’s biggest ever IPO in June.
Amid Wednesday's spurt of euro covered bond issuance, UBS Switzerland received a lukewarm response to a €1.25bn dual-tranche offering split across 3.5-year and seven-year legs.
The jumbo, record-busting £5.5bn (US$6.5bn) five-tranche sale by Google parent Alphabet has set back Australia’s chances to become the world’s third largest bond market behind US dollars and euros.
Three UK corporates were in the sterling market on Wednesday after earnings blackouts, making the most of the momentum from Alphabet’s record-breaking £5.5bn trade on Tuesday.
Plenty of investors are comfortable at the long end of France's yield curve, if the sovereign's new 30-year benchmark is anything to go by, with demand reaching a record high for an OAT syndication, according to IFR data.
Ledn, which is preparing a rare bitcoin-backed structured finance offering, sold a "significant share" of the loans it planned to securitize in the deal over roughly the past week as the value of the digital currency fell, S&P said in a presale report on Monday.
Securitisations backed by buy now, pay later receivables could emerge in Europe for the first time as surging e-commerce volumes expand lending to higher-risk borrowers and regulatory tightening boosts investor confidence, according to a Moody's report.
Marathon and Castlelake are returning to the aviation securitization market to take advantage of tight spreads and rising lease prices for planes as a result of tight supply and robust ridership.
A Blackstone joint venture is in the securitisation market with a US$3bn offering to refinance the Cosmopolitan casino on the Las Vegas Strip that it purchased in 2022.
China is to take biodiversity financing to a new level with the first sovereign green bond to dedicate its proceeds to addressing biodiversity loss and protecting ecosystems.
Deutsche Bank made a notable entrance into the select club of FIG issuers equipped to print green bonds aligned with European Union standards.
Blue bond buyers Fidelity and T Rowe Price supported a US$50m private placement by Turkey's Isbank that marked the country’s first water-related offering taken up by commercial investors.
The stalled sovereign debt-for-development swap market is set for its first deals in more than a year after a notable new player created by DFD pioneer Ramzi Issa signed up a leading speciality insurer to back its transactions.
Solv Energy raised US$512.5m late Tuesday from an all-primary Nasdaq IPO as investors flock to opportunities tied to US onshoring and AI-related infrastructure investments.
AGI raised US$240m from a NYSE IPO late Tuesday that was significantly downsized and priced at a lowered valuation, prompting it to target a limited group of long-only investors.
Indonesian fintech Akulaku, which was earlier planning a US listing, is now looking at Hong Kong and could raise US$300m–$400m through an IPO there, people with knowledge of the transaction said.
Sweden’s Noba Bank Group, one of the best performing stocks from the 2025 IPO vintage, was back in the spotlight on Tuesday as major shareholders trimmed their stakes.
Global asset manager Nuveen is backing its £9.9bn recommended cash acquisition of London-listed Schroders with a £3.1bn delayed draw term loan.
A consortium comprising Canadian investment firm Brookfield and Singapore sovereign fund GIC has launched a A$2.77bn (US$2bn) dual-tranche loan to back its planned buyout of Australia’s undefined National Storage REIT.
Lenders to French retailer Casino are prepared to takeover the company with a plan that aims to reduce the company's €1.4bn reinstated term loan maturing in 2027 to €500m, in a bid to make to the company more attractive to any future buyer, sources said.
Tepid investor demand and mounting concerns over the credit’s risk profile forced IVC Evidensia’s hand in withdrawing its triple currency amend and extend exercise.
Read the latest stories from the magazine IFR 2619 - 7 Feb 2026 - 13 Feb 2026
7 Feb 2026 - 13 Feb 2026