Europe’s high-yield bond market — for issuers with a poor credit rating — has virtually been shut for the last six weeks because of the continent’s debt crisis, posing a headache for those who are facing debt maturities as early as next year.
Qatar Islamic Bank SAQ, the Gulf state’s biggest bank complying with Muslim banking rules, bought 1.25 billion riyals ($344 million) of Islamic bonds offered by the government.
HSBC Holdings Plc’s $3.4 billion issue of undated 8 percent notes marks the first sale of debt securities designed to qualify as capital under current and proposed bank regulations.
BP Plc, battling to plug a gushing oil well under the Gulf of Mexico, is seeking to raise up to $7 billion in loans from seven banks, banking sources told Thomson Reuters LPC on Friday.
The US Treasury’s plan to help banks to restore their battered balance sheets by encouraging people to buy up to $1 trillion (£690bn) of toxic assets has thrown the spotlight on the potentially lucrative opportunities that are now available to brave investors.
The Reserve Bank of India’s top brass will discuss the government’s market borrowing programme for the year beginning April with the ministry of finance on Thursday.
Kazakhstan’s largest bank, BTA BTAS.KZ, has registered ten domestic bond issues for a total of 300 billion tenge ($2 billion), the Kazakh Stock Exchange said on Friday.
Industrial Bank of Korea is seeking to sell $500 million to $1 billion in bonds abroad, a bank source said on Friday, as South Korea’s state-run and private banks rush to raise dollars.
Bank of China Ltd. plans to sell as much as 120 billion yuan ($17.5 billion) of subordinated bonds over the next four years, the most among Chinese lenders, as it offers more credit to support an economic stimulus plan.
