Bond

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Bank contagion has officially spread to international markets, raising fears that last week’s dramatic failures of U.S. lenders Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank may be just the start of another global crisis. Shares of Credit Suisse Group, one of Europe’s top 20 largest banks by assets, plunged more than 32% in intraday trading, hitting a new all-time low following reports that the Swiss bank continues to see depositor outflows. Yields on short-dated U.S. Treasury bonds fell to their lowest levels in months on increased safe-haven demand. (Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.) The six-month yield traded as low as 4.5% on Wednesday, while the one-year yield came close to breaking below 4.0% for the first time since October 2022. I believe the bond rally may continue the longer fears of a full-blown banking crisis persist. Investors interested in capital preservation right now can do much worse … [Read more...] about Ultra-Short Government Bonds Are Rallying On Bank Contagion Fears

Sir Sean Connery has died aged 90. Jason Bond, his son, announced that he had died peacefully in his sleep after being “unwell for some time”. His career spanned some 70 movies. He was the first actor to have portrayed Ian Fleming’s British spy character James Bond, playing the role 7 times from 1962 to 1983. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables (1987), and extended his acting chops with his portrayal of Mark Rutland in Marnie (1964), Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez in Highlander (1986), Henry Jones (Indiana Jones’ dad) in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Captain Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius in The Hunt for Red October (1990), and Allan Quatermain in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). He also won 2 BAFTA Awards, 3 Golden Globes, and a Henrietta Award. Jason Connery, also an actor, said his father died on Friday night while in the Bahamas with many of his family at his bedside. “We … [Read more...] about OBITUARY: Sean Connery, the original Bond and the sexiest man of the 20th century

Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) raised P3 billion from a local bond sale that saw significant demand from investors. In a statement on Monday, RCBC said the money would support business expansion, loan refinancing and other general corporate purposes. The fixed-rate Asean Sustainability Peso Bond offering, concluded earlier this month, was the company’s sixth foray in the local market. It was also heavily subscribed with demand reaching almost P17.9 billion or about 5.9 times the offer size, RCBC said. The bonds will be issued at a fixed coupon of 3.2 percent per annum for the 2.5-year tenor and 4.18 percent per annum for the 5.25-year. Meanwhile, the securities will be listed on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. on March 31 this year. RCBC said the offer was issued under its P100-billion bond and commercial paper program. Standard Chartered Bank was mandated as the sole lead arranger and bookrunner together with RCBC Capital Corp. as … [Read more...] about RCBC raises P3B from fresh bond offering

Tycoon Frederick Dy’s Security Bank Corp. raised P16 billion from the sale of bonds after a massive upsizing due to strong investor demand. Security Bank said in a stock exchange filing the 3.7407-percent fixed-rate bonds, maturing in 1.5 years, were issued on Wednesday. Security Bank initially planned to issue P1 billion in bonds from July 4 to July 15. The offer size was eventually expanded 16 times “due to strong demand.” “Security Bank offered the bonds to support its lending activities and expand its funding base,” the lender said. The bonds were listed on the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp., it added. Minimum denominations were set for P1 million and increments of P100,000 thereafter. Security Bank executive vice president and financial markets segment head Raul Pedro said in the stock exchange filing the bond issue and oversubscription signaled “investor confidence” in the lender. Security Bank earlier tapped Philippine Commercial Capital Inc. as sole … [Read more...] about Security Bank secures P16B from blockbuster bond sale

LONDON  – Just over $17 billion worth of Credit Suisse bond s, known as Additional Tier 1 or AT1 , debt will be written down to zero on the orders of the Swiss regulator as part of a rescue merger with UBS. Under the deal, holders of Credit Suisse AT1 bond s will get nothing, while shareholders, who usually rank below bond holders in terms of who gets paid when a bank or company collapses, will receive $3.23 billion. AT1 bond s issued by other European bank s fell sharply on Monday as the treatment of Credit Suisse AT1 bond holders highlighted the risks of investing in this type of debt. Here are some of the implications of the Credit Suisse AT1 bond write-down. What is an AT1 bond ? AT1 bond s – a $275-billion sector also known as “contingent convertibles” or “CoCo” bond s – act as shock absorbers if a bank ‘s capital levels fall below a certain threshold. They can be converted into equity or written off. They make up part of the … [Read more...] about Why markets are in uproar over a risky bank bond known as AT1

MANILA, Philippines  – DoubleDragon Corp., the real estate venture between tycoons Tony Tan Caktiong and Edgar “Injap” Sia II, is planning a new US dollar bond sale as it gears up to expand its Hotel101 condotel franchise overseas. The developer, through wholly-owned offshore subsidiary DDPC Worldwide Pte. Ltd., said in a stock exchange filing on Monday it hired investment bank UBS as sole deal arranger for a “top up” offering on its $160- million 7.25 percent outstanding bonds listed in Singapore and due in 2025. It did not indicate the final amount to be raised but said the deal was aimed at “diversification of its funding sources as it prepares itself to grow its business operations inside and outside the Philippines over the long-term.” “Philippine companies have successfully offered and listed fixed term senior bonds on the [Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd.] in recent years,” DoubleDragon said in the filing. “DoubleDragon recognizes the value that diverse funding … [Read more...] about Double Dragon eyes new US dollar bond sale

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Would you rather be looked after in your old age by your kids or robots? For me the answer is easy – robots. They won’t forget my meds, are good at tidying up and, with only a modicum of improvement in artificial intelligence, are likely to have more empathy. The Japanese are not so sure. But faced with the world’s oldest population and a shortage of care workers, they have no choice but to experiment. In one pilot program they paid $1,000 to nursing homes that agreed to use a robot for certain basic functions – helping patients get around, changing sheets, etc. The results? Employee overtime declined as the robots helped ease the workload. But hospitals still needed to employ the same number of nurses. Turns out the robots were, like my children, not particularly empathetic. Nurses were needed to comfort patients and, more generally, were able to refocus their time to improve quality of service. An encouraging … [Read more...] about The Future Is Brighter For Workers But Dangerous For Bond Investors

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Topline Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) sold between $450,007 and $1 million in bonds from major U.S. banks last month, shortly before the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history stirred up turmoil in the nation’s banking sector, according to a new filing . Key Facts Trone sold the fixed income securities from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo on February 16. That was roughly three weeks before confidence in the banking industry crashed as Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed and concerns mounted about how large banks’ involvement in the run largely targeting regional banks could spread the contagion. Trone—who sits on Congress’ joint economic committee and the House appropriations committee—has no added “insight into the financial markets” from his committee membership and the transactions were “unaffected by the stock market’s behavior” and the … [Read more...] about Rep. Trone Offloaded Bank Bonds Worth Up To $1 Million In Weeks Before Banking Crisis

MANILA, Philippines  -DoubleDragon Corp., the real estate venture between tycoons Tony Tan Caktiong and Edgar “Injap” Sia II, said its overseas subsidiary raised an additional $20 million via a bond sale in Singapore. In a stock exchange filing on Thursday, the developer said DDPC Worldwide Pte. Ltd. raised the amount though a tap offering of its outstanding $160 -million 7.25 percent notes due 2025 that are listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd. “Use of proceeds intended for the development and construction of Hotel101 overseas projects and for general corporate purposes,” DoubleDragon said. This was in line with the broader goal to export the Hotel10 in the International market. “DoubleDragon envisions its subsidiary Hotel101 Global Pte Ltd to reach 500,000 uniform Hotel101 room portfolio globally by 2040 and aims to make the homegrown Filipino Hotel101 brand become one of the top 5 global hotel groups operating in over 101 countries,” DoubleDragon said. … [Read more...] about DoubleDragon raises $20M via offshore bond sales

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Last Friday (March 10), seemingly out of the blue, the financial world was rocked with the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB VB ), then Signature Bank SBNY . This week we saw the contagion spread to Europe (Credit Suisse). The chart above shows the rapid plunge this past week in the S&P Regional Bank Index, not a pretty picture. We did have a CPI report; it was released on Tuesday (March 14) and was nearly identical to market expectations, with Y/Y inflation falling back to 6.0%. Then on Wednesday, the Producer Price Index showed an actual fall of -0.1% for February, with the services sub-index also showing up as -0.1% for the second month in a row, something we haven’t seen for more than 7 years. The Fed meets next week, with markets now indicating that a 50-basis point rate hike is now off the table. The sentiment appears to be tilting toward between no rate hike, but 25 basis points is still a clear … [Read more...] about An Anatomy Of The Banking Crisis