MicroStrategy fuels bitcoin buying binge with US$700m raise

After a compromise between English-speaking countries’ willingness to seize US$280bn of "immobilised" Russian sovereign assets for the benefit of Ukraine and more legalistic caution from their European counterparts, the G7 group of advanced economies appears to have groped its way to a compromise deal on lending as much as US$50bn this year to the embattled country. “I’m very pleased to share that this week the G7 signed a plan to finalise and unlock US$50bn from the proceeds of those frozen assets, to put that money to work for Ukraine,”...

Financial innovation or financial sleight of hand? Admirable chutzpah or sailing too close to the wind? How you view the complex UK inflation trades that minted some investment banks hundreds of millions of tax-free pounds will probably depend on how sympathetically you regard the finance industry more broadly. On the one hand, it’s hard to ignore the fact that this was a neat bit of trading. After all, it wasn’t enough to identify that the amount of money bondholders would get back when UK inflation-linked government bonds matured was set to...

J Jill took the latest step in its financial rehabilitation through a US$62m combo primary and secondary stock sale executed on an overnight basis on Wednesday. The offering is essentially a re-IPO of a business that went public in 2017 but hasn’t sold stock since. Jefferies, William Blair and TD Cowen wall-crossed investors beginning midday on Monday before publicly launching the sale of 2m shares after the market close on Wednesday. They priced the full-sized offering at US$31, the midpoint of the US$30–$32 marketing range and a 21.6%...

German property company Adler has been given permission to take its original restructuring plan under English law, which was rejected on appeal, to the Supreme Court in London at the same time as it is in the process of implementing its second revised restructuring plan. The legal nuance was revealed in the documentation published earlier this month in connection with the second plan. The company, which would prefer to use a consent solicitation under German law to implement its current proposals, said the Supreme Court outcome would not affect...

Navigator ensured a US$105m selldown by a strategic investor was smooth-sailing by buying back half of the shares in the offering, sending a bullish message on its outlook. After an earlier wall-cross, Citigroup and DNB Markets upsized the overnight sale to 7m shares from 6m at launch and priced the offering at US$15, the lower half of the US$14.90–US$15.35 marketing range and a 7.2% discount to the Tuesday US$16.16 closing price. The Marshall Islands-domiciled liquefied products shipper’s shares closed Wednesday’s session at US$16.74, up 3.6...

A market holiday and earnings blackouts as the second quarter draws to a close are destined to interrupt US ECM activity in the coming week. Wednesday's Juneteenth holiday dissecting the week and complicating marketing efforts means no IPOs of note are scheduled to price and secondary ECM is likely to be limited. Still, one syndicate banker said there was potential for some deal flow in the early part of the week. Equity issuers face a tight window ahead of another public holiday on July 4, making it difficult to squeeze in many IPOs ahead of...

The USh220.5bn (US$58.8m) follow-on in MTN Uganda ended 2.3 times subscribed having been covered on the first day of subscription last month. Shares were offered at a fixed price of USh170 each with investors receiving 30 incentive shares for every 140 purchased, giving an average price of USh140 and deal size of 1.57bn shares, including the incentive shares. There were orders for more than 3bn shares. Parent MTN sold just over 7% of its subsidiary to increase the free-float to 20%, a requirement of the Uganda Securities Exchange. Local and...

Canadian E&P Advantage Energy locked in funding for a C$450m (US$330m) acquisition overnight on Monday through the sale of contingent equity, providing certainty of having the money required but guaranteeing investors a rebate if it doesn’t need the money. The two-part equity raise came in the form of subscription receipts and extendible convertible unsecured subordinated debt. TD Securities and ScotiaBank placed 5.91m subscription receipts at C$11, a 4.8% discount to the C$11.56 TSX last sale on Monday. The C$125m CB priced at a 5% coupon...

Digital engineering and IT services firm Virtusa tapped the market with a US$582m fungible incremental term loan. The company has also repriced its US$657m first-lien term loan. The aggregate US$1.239bn loan is set to mature in February 2029. Pricing for the aggregate loan landed at 325bp over SOFR with a 0.75% floor, at par. Plans to include a credit spread adjustment were dropped. The repricing cut the previous margin from 375bp. It resets 101 soft call protection for six months. Proceeds from the incremental first-lien TL will be used to...

Danske Bank has promoted Lars Mac Key to global head of sustainable products. The Stockholm-based banker was previously head of DCM sustainable bonds, having joined the Danish bank in 2015 after 17 years at leading agency borrower Swedish Export Credit. The new position, which follows an internal shift to make corporate and sustainable capital markets part of Danske’s investment bank, gives Mac Key responsibility for efforts in both ESG bonds and loans. The former was known as sustainable products, but was renamed six years ago as green and...

Akbank offered a slightly different model for pricing Turkish bank new issues last Thursday and managed to set the yield at or through fair value. The strategy wasn’t particularly complex. The bonds were offered at IPTs closer to fair value than some of the recent Turkish bank supply in the hope that, even if there were only a relatively modest move from the starting level, the new issue premium would be minimised. In the end, the result exceeded expectations. The privately-owned lender brought out a no-grow US$500m long five-year senior...

Road King Infrastructure, a Chinese toll-road operator turned property developer, is seeking consent to extend the maturities and coupon reset dates of almost US$2bn of bonds on what it calls “generous and sincere” terms. Unlike other Chinese real estate names that have sought debt extensions or restructurings, Road King is offering investors a sizable upfront payment, with no coupon reductions or haircut. Six bonds are included in the consent solicitation: a US$301.2m 6.7% September 2024, a US$194.6m 5.9% March 2025, a US$186.4m 6% September...