US ECM makes strides but hurdles lie ahead

A long and painstaking ordeal to settle Russia credit default swaps came to an end last week, more than three months since these derivatives contracts were ruled to have been triggered after Moscow missed some small debt payments. Overall, the successful conclusion of the Russia CDS auction will go down as a big win for CDS – a market that struggles to win plaudits at the best of times. The derivatives industry has had to navigate a complex web of Western sanctions levied against Moscow for its war in Ukraine to get to this point. Securing a...

Behind a tailwind of sector M&A, Alignment Healthcare’s sponsors took the opportunity to cash in a portion of their holdings overnight on Thursday through a US$132.8m block sale. JP Morgan, the purchaser of the block, likely was caught in the downdraft as shares of the healthcare provider plunged in the aftermath. Alignment shares were trading at midday on Friday at US$13.06, well below the US$14.75 price at which the bank had offloaded its purchase of 9m secondary shares and down some 18% from the US$16.00 Thursday close. JP Morgan marketed...

The European Stability Mechanism is broadly expected to hit the three to seven-year part of the euro market this week following the huge interest buyers have shown for other top-tier SSAs recently. A euro appearance could see ESM get a multiple subscribed book, like other recent issuers have, said a banker with previous experience dealing with the supranational. The European Investment Bank raked in orders of more than €33bn for a €4bn March 2030 climate awareness bond. The European Union, meanwhile, received close to €115bn of interest...

Crestwood Equity Partners, an under-owned master limited partnership, went a long way to cleaning up its shareholder registry by agreeing to buy back stock alongside a US$306.7m secondary block sale of stock overnight on Monday. Citigroup offloaded its purchase of 11.4m secondary units at US$26.90 with the MLP spending US$125m to repurchase another 4.6m units, after marketing overnight at a slightly higher US$26.96 price and a US$28.62 reference close. Crestwood units rose 1.5% to US$29.05 on Tuesday, suggesting a successful distribution of a...

Florida Power & Light owner NextEra Energy, one of the more sophisticated users of capital markets, brought a US$2bn bought sale of mandatory convertible bonds overnight on Wednesday to keep recent momentum in the equity-linked business going. The offering was bid out to banks in a competitive process, in keeping with NextEra’s usual approach to get the most out of the fees it pays Wall Street. “Banks were a little more measured than they have been in the past in bidding for the offering,” said one equity-linked banker. “I think it’s a function...

In what may prove a template for convertible bond financings, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals termed out floating-rate bank debt with a new US$900m five-year convertible bond, significantly reducing its borrowing costs as interest rates soar by using its surging share price as currency. JP Morgan and Bank of America priced the CB late on Monday at a coupon and conversion premium of 1% and 35%, through the aggressive ends of 1.25%–1.75% and 30%–35% terms marketed for one day. The biopharma firmed up the investment parameters with the release the...

Investors are failing to scrutinise issuers’ green bond impact reports, ABN AMRO said in a research report that suggests this type of reporting is highly inconsistent – perhaps because borrowers see little reward for greater transparency in the performance of their bonds. The bank's "Review of utility companies’ green bond impact reports" focused on the most active sector for green bond issuance, and found huge variation. “It's basically impossible to compare issuers because they have so much variety in terms of reporting,” said Larissa de...

French holidays group Pierre & Vacances-Center Parcs has raised its €50m target in a rights issue, part of a wider programme of restructuring transactions. Investors subscribed for 59.19m new shares at €0.75 each, representing 88.6% take-up in the 66.78m share offer. Pricing was a 40.5% discount to TERP of €1.2597, and a 19.5% discount to TERP of €0.93 when adjusted for warrants that were also issued, based on a close of €4.70 on July 29. The remaining 7.59m shares were covered by excess demand for 45m shares. In addition to the rights issue...

Sarepta Therapeutics is rushing to launch its Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug as soon as possible, moving ahead with plans to seek expedited approval from US regulators despite concerns over safety. The biopharmaceutical company powered through a US$1bn convertible bond financing last week to fine-tune its capital structure in hopes of commercially launching the DMD gene therapy treatment next year. Sarepta is an unabashed champion of the DMD movement and a darling of the CB market, given the urgency to deliver a promising but unproven...

Tissue and packaging paper producer Lucart has agreed a €101.4m loan to support its investments in the circular economy. The financing, which carries a guarantee from state-owned SACE, has a six-year maturity and is divided into four loans, two of which are sustainability-linked. Margins on the SLLs are linked to targets including waste recovery and the reduction of water consumption. UniCredit is global coordinator and intercreditor agent on the financing, together with BNL BNP Paribas, Banco BPM, BPER Banca, Credit Agricole and Intesa...

Citigroup has hired Barry Weir, a veteran JP Morgan M&A banker, as a managing director in investment banking in the UK. Weir will join in late September, and adds to Citi's efforts to build up its banking, capital markets and advisory coverage in the UK and Ireland. He spent 22 years at JP Morgan and headed UK M&A for several years and worked across several sectors, including industrials, energy, metals and mining, and real estate. Shawn Saparamadu has joined Lazard as a managing director in its industrials group. He will be based in New York...

Regional bank CNB Financial bolstered its capital base by raising US$87m from an overnight stock sale late on Thursday. PNC FIG Advisory and Janney Montgomery Scott led the sale of 3.7m CNB shares or about 20% of outstanding at US$23.50, the bottom of the US$23.50–$24.00 marketing range and a 9.9% discount to last sale. Early in Friday's aftermarket session, the shares were trading at US$23.91 or comfortably above the offering price. CNB, a full-service bank with US$5.3bn of assets, said it planned to use the net proceeds for general corporate...