Ukraine CDS triggers following debt deal

Poorer countries needing help confronting climate change should largely rely on grants from multilateral institutions and related bodies rather than through complex deals offering debt forgiveness if climate goals are met, a paper by staff at the International Monetary Fund said. Some academics have said that because poorer countries often have substantial debt burdens, removing some of that burden in return for more investment in mitigating climate change might be a way of solving both problems. But the paper, which does not reflect official...

The collateralised loan obligation market is warning investors they could see their returns diminished by proposed regulation that just won support from a key Democrat on the Hill. The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new rules to bring more transparency to private funds requiring managers to provide investors with quarterly statements and an annual audit for each private fund it oversees. This month Senator Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, expressed his approval of the proposal...

A US$280bn semiconductor production spending bill signed into law by US President Joe Biden could stimulate deal flow for a sub-sector seen as “sleepy” compared with the rest of the technology sector. The massive level of investment needed to restore a manufacturing base in the US could easily reach US$1trn, said the head of technology banking at one investment bank. The new legislation, the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors Act, dubbed CHIPS, is intended to promote domestic production of semiconductors through new...

A back-to-school atmosphere is expected to prevail in the public sector euro market this week, with at least three transactions expected, though that could be just the tip of the iceberg. KfW reopened the euro market with aplomb last week, printing a €5bn deal on books over €22.5bn, making for an early restart to SSA issuance as the issuer took advantage of the stronger backdrop that has prevailed since the end of July. Still, while the deal surprised some to the upside, bankers were cautious over not getting too carried away. "The KfW trade...

In theory, it should be a simple decision, driven by moral and humanitarian concerns. Ukrainian state-owned company Naftogaz is seeking to suspend its debt payments for two years to buy gas to get the war-torn country through the winter. It is seeking bondholders’ approval for the move. Yet last week the company failed in its second attempt to get a consent offer over the line – in contrast to the Ukraine sovereign and two other state-owned companies that recently won approval from their creditors to defer their Eurobond payments. Creditors...

In what is the first of an expected wave of green energy-related financings, Bloom Energy and Sunnova Energy International took advantage of momentum from last week’s passage to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 to raise cash. US President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed the healthcare and climate bill into law, as both Bloom and Sunnova were marketing their financings. The bill includes US$369bn earmarked for clean energy, most directly by incentivising solar, wind and other forms of alternative energy through tax breaks. Bloom, a...

Naftogaz's second attempt to win approval from its investors to suspend payments on its Eurobonds has ended in another failure, with the Ukrainian state-owned gas company forced to think again over how to untangle an increasingly knotty debt problem. The outcome did not come as a surprise given some key investors had been vocal in their criticism of the revised offer from Naftogaz, which slipped into default after failing to make payments on two of its bonds in July. It means that while the Ukrainian sovereign and two other state-owned entities...

Wells Fargo is out and Ally Financial is in with billionaire bank investor Warren Buffett. According to the latest regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway tripled its stake in online bank Ally Financial to 30m shares, up from about 9m three months earlier and lifting the value of his stake to more than US$1bn. Earlier this year, Buffett sold the last bits of what was once a significant stake in Wells, after sticking with the bank through a series of crises. But Buffett has a well-deserved...

The US Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by US President Joe Biden includes US$27bn for a National Climate Bank that is expected to leverage billions more in clean technology investments over the next decade from banks and private equity investors. The so-called Green Bank is part of US$370bn in spending and tax credits included in the legislation. The programme will be run out of the Environmental Protection Agency. The National Climate Bank will focus on investments in nine key areas, including renewable energy, energy storage, clean...

Paul Bajer, until recently head of credit structuring at Credit Suisse, is due to start on Monday as global co-head of a newly-formed cross asset and platforms group at Deutsche Bank in London. He will run the new group, which knits together the firm’s products and platforms across fixed income and currencies, alongside Vadim Totskyy, a Deutsche Bank stalwart of 16 years, according to a memo seen by IFR. Totskyy is also based in London. Bajer will take responsibility for the FIC offering, the delivery of flow structured notes and the...

General Atlantic and Sprint sold 7.9% of Swedish real estate website Hemnet on Monday night, with the mid-August accelerated trade attracting plenty of attention and pricing at a double-digit discount. An offering of 8m shares was launched around the London close with reference to the SKr165.20 close. The deal was covered on indications at launch from a wall-crossing exercise during the day. Formal coverage was achieved within 15 minutes and shortly before 7pm there was guidance that orders below SKr147 risked missing out, with the deal...

With the global economic outlook worsening, alternative investors are falling over themselves to provide financing packages to distressed debtors, judging by transactions that have recently been completed. Troubled airline SAS, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last month, is the latest to do so, obtaining a US$700m debtor-in-possession loan from major credit investor Apollo Global Management. The lender has provided the money as a delayed draw term loan with a nine-month maturity from the closing date, which is...