Bluewater plans dollar refinancing bonds

Usually if the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. Over the past fortnight or so, though, it’s the UK’s sickness that has been driving global market sentiment. While it’s unsurprising that analysts and commentators in Britain are transfixed by the country’s self-inflicted crisis, it’s a rare occasion that policymakers elsewhere get so interested in the UK’s troubles. But in this instance there’s good reason to be: the UK’s faltering attempt to transition to a post-QE, high-growth economy has been a disaster, with the scope for...

Fedrigoni upsized a bumper two-tranche bond on Friday, in a sign that the bruised euro high-yield market can still absorb jumbo deals despite two failed LBO-related bond sales in recent weeks. The Italian paper company was set to print a €1.025bn dual-tranche, marking the largest transaction in the euro high-yield market since February this year. The size of the deal, which is split across a five-year non-call two senior secured fixed-rate bond and a five non-call one senior secured floating-rate note, was increased by €150m on Thursday. ...

In an audacious move Cineworld is attempting to carve out the oldest portion of its business, based in Israel and Eastern Europe, and leave the UK and US businesses it more recently acquired behind in the ongoing Chapter 11 process. That is likely to lead to the latter being taken over by creditors. If so, family shareholders of the beleaguered cinema chain are well placed to regain control of the business upon which the empire was subsequently built via a series of leveraged acquisitions, assuming all goes according to plan. The development...

Credit Suisse is calling for “more sophisticated” ESG analysis that combines top-down thematic research with traditional bottom-up company insights and modelling. With the increasing availability of geospatial and other types of granular location data, this next-level approach should also draw heavily on data science, it said. The firm’s new “Treeprint” series exemplifies this approach and breaks new ground, it claimed. “When I listen to investors, what they tend to say is that no broker really has properly integrated all relevant aspects of...

Warrants in UK-listed SPAC ACG Acquisition began trading on Wednesday. The US$125m global metals and mining-focused SPAC led by the former chief executive of EN+ Group Artem Volynets had completed its IPO the previous week with shares closing their debut on October 7 at US$10.025. Trading has been typically muted with some days when no shares changed hands. Shares ended the week at US$9.925, while warrants were quoted at US$0.505 but have yet to trade on exchange. Citigroup was bookrunner of the IPO.

JP Morgan outperformed rivals Citigroup and Morgan Stanley last quarter despite taking a nearly US$1bn hit on securities investments, as revenue from fixed income trading surged to lift its markets revenue to a new record for a third quarter. But while fixed income trading surged, investment banking revenue slumped at all three banks as companies shied away from M&A transactions in volatile markets and underwriting remained stalled. That continued trends seen in the first six months of the year. Investment banking revenue in the...

Corporate borrowers, faced with unpalatable cost of funding on their hybrid bonds, are looking to reduce their overall stack of such debt, another nail in the coffin for the market, which has seen volumes plummet in 2022. Naturgy said on Thursday that it would redeem one of its subordinated bonds at the first call date in November with cash, suggesting its intention to give up on hybrids as a permanent part of its capital structure. This comes as a handful of companies, such as Merck and Balder, have conducted tender offers on their hybrids...

As issuers and investors attempted to regain their footing in a jittery European securitisation market last week, Volkswagen Leasing raked in plenty of orders for its German auto ABS senior bond offering, though efforts to find a home for mezzanine paper stalled. Demand for the Triple A rated notes of VW’s STS auto lease ABS deal, VCL 37, was so strong that the issuer was able to increase the size of the offering by a third, from €708.8m to €945.1m, and still price it at the tight end of the final guidance range, 55bp over Euribor. The book was...

Finnish vehicle contract manufacturer Valmet Automotive has kicked off pre-marketing for a €140m all-primary IPO with half the deal already covered by two pension funds. Cornerstone commitments are from Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company for €40m and €30m from Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company. Those commitments cap the pre-money valuation of Valmet at €280m. That valuation points to a free-float of one-third and market capitalisation at listing of €420m. Valmet is launching its IPO in a very quiet period for ECM and is the only...

US ECM activity looks likely to remain depressed near-term as investors focus on third-quarter earnings and continue to look for any hint that the Federal Reserve might ease up on its hawkish agenda. Syndicate desks were at least able to get some IPO activity going in the past week; early on Thursday launching the US$160m Nasdaq IPO of gene-editing specialist Prime Medicine for pricing post-close Tuesday. Assuming the deal is priced, Prime would rank as the first US$50m-plus new issue since Corebridge Financial and Third Harmonic Bio debuted on...

China Three Gorges, China’s state-owned renewable energy provider, expects to file later this month to spin off its Brazilian operations via a B3 IPO, according to a Reuters report. Citigroup is leading a syndicate including Bank of America, Itau, Banco Bradesco and BTG Pactual for an estimated US$1bn IPO of CTG Brasil. CTG Brasil could go public in December, though, as for most IPO aspirants in the queue, early 2023 is more likely. It operates 17 hydropower plants and 11 wind farms with 8.3GW of installed capacity. Brazilian stocks have jumped...

Caisse Francaise de Financement Local (Caffil) landed an assured €1bn long six-year covered on Monday in spite of the surprise absence of an order from the French central bank. Caffil's deal drew the attention of market participants after it became apparent that the leads had not received an order from the Banque de France, according to sources. While net purchases under the European Central Bank's purchase programme have ended, eligible new issues have still typically benefited from an order of around 20% of the deal's size from the Eurosystem...