Intesa sells pioneering 'circular-economy' bond

The New York Stock Exchange is proposing a rule change that would allow capital raisings alongside increasingly popular direct listings, throwing out a fresh challenge to the traditional US IPO model. Egged on by Silicon Valley venture capital firms that view the traditional IPO as inefficient and subject to mispricing, the NYSE is now seeking Securities and Exchange Commission approval for an amendment to its Listed Company Manual. Under the proposal a company would be able to sell newly issued shares directly into the exchange's open...

Westpac Banking Corp offered to refund retail investors in a recent share placement and said its chief executive had resigned, as it unveiled a raft of remedial actions to quell outrage over a massive money-laundering scandal. Westpac has offered to refund retail investors who signed up to a A$500m share purchase plan, launched earlier this month alongside a A$2bn overnight institutional placement, in an apparent attempt to prevent a class-action lawsuit. Law firm Phi Finney McDonald has already said it was in discussions with investors....

Trading volumes in Greek credit-default swaps, the derivatives contracts politicians once accused of fuelling the eurozone crisis, have surged to levels not seen since the country's historic debt restructuring. Greece has become the second most traded European sovereign CDS this year behind Italy, according to Citigroup analysis of DTCC data, with US$259m changing hands on average each week in 2019. This time, though, analysts say the sharp uptick does not reflect concerns over the local economy. Instead, it is most likely linked to bank...

Profitability across European banks dipped to 7% on average and prospects for an improvement remain bleak amid low interest rates and the threat of higher impairments, the region's banking watchdog said. The European Banking Authority said return on equity for 131 banks across 27 countries averaged 7% in the 12 months to the end of June, down from 7.2% a year earlier. "There are hardly any clear catalysts for an improvement in bank profitability that appear on the horizon. It tends to be rather the other way round," the EBA said on Friday....

China National Chemical Corp is looking to raise up to US$10bn for its agrochemicals business before listing the unit in the Chinese A-share market, according to people close to the deal. The agrochemicals unit of the state-owned chemical giant, also known as ChemChina, is expected to include Swiss pesticides and seeds producer Syngenta, Shenzhen-listed global crop protection company Adama and other agrochemicals assets. ChemChina is working with Chinese and international advisors to raise funds in the renminbi market through a private...

Investors in emerging markets sovereign debt are having to confront the potential contradictions in the market's new favourite fad: environmental, social and governance investments. Protests have been seen in Chile, Ecuador, Lebanon and other states. Most have stemmed from proposed tax hikes - including for environmental reasons - that disproportionately affect the poor. That throws into question whether lumping ESG together in one measure is useful for an EM sovereign debt fund, since a policy seen as environmentally beneficial may spark...

M&A banker Francesco Bertocchini has joined Nomura as managing director for Italy, based in Milan. He reports to Stefano Giudici, head of investment banking for Italy. Bertocchini joined from UBI Banca where he was head of M&A. Before that he was a director at Rothschild specialising in consumer goods, retail, leisure and healthcare, as well as private equity transactions. Citigroup has promoted Akin Dawodu to head its business across Sub-Saharan Africa, expanding his reach across 32 countries. Dawodu has been Citi's country head in Nigeria for...

Barbados’s creditors have given their formal backing to the restructuring of the Caribbean island’s US dollar bonds, creating a new class of sovereign debt which will give automatic relief from payments for two years if it's hit by a hurricane over the lifetime of the bonds. In October holders of the US$677m of notes agreed to the deal terms, which sees those bonds, with maturities up to 2035, swapped for a new US$500m 2029 note with a lower interest rate of 6.5%. That gives them a haircut of 26.3% and the risk the notes could be extended if...

The International Capital Market Association is picking up the fight against EU mandatory buy-in proposals again, saying it could have "significant negative impacts" for high-yield bond market liquidity. The right to buy in is already a common contract term, but under proposals from the European Securities and Markets Authority it will become mandatory. But that change could have a dramatic impact on prices and liquidity, banking lobby group ICMA said. So-called buy-ins allows the injured party in a failed securities or repo transaction to...

French luxury goods firm LVMH is lining up around US$17bn-equivalent of loans to back its recommended US$16.2bn acquisition of US jewellery maker Tiffany, providing a welcome tonic as well as a touch of glamour to the European loan market after a disappointing year in which blockbuster M&A lending opportunities remained rare. The loans, which will initially fund the acquisition, comprise a US$8.5bn bridge loan, a US$5.75bn commercial paper back-up line and a €2.5bn revolving credit facility. The acquisition financing is expected to be...

Deutsche Bank has sold assets with a notional value of about US$50bn tied to emerging market debt to Goldman Sachs as part of the German bank's attempt to shrink, people familiar with the matter said. Deutsche has sold several portfolios of unwanted assets and is keen to sell more to reduce the size and complexity of its balance sheet under a turnaround plan kicked off in July by chief executive Christian Sewing. Goldman previously bought a book of Asian equity derivatives assets auctioned off by Deutsche as part of Sewing's turnaround plan....

China is planning a Stock Connect scheme with Germany, building on a similar trading link between Shanghai and London which was launched in June. Chen Han, co-CEO of China Europe International Exchange, said at a recent conference in Frankfurt the exchange was working on setting up the trading link. "With mutual depositary receipt listings on the exchanges in Shanghai and Frankfurt by German and Chinese companies, we strive to establish an ever closer connection between our capital markets and real economies. The feedback from high-profile...