Coronavirus

Argentine authorities were understood to be weighing up debt restructuring proposals from several bondholders on Sunday evening as default looms large for the South American sovereign.

UPDATED 16 May 3am BST Since March 18, when Europe's coronavirus caseload overtook east Asia's, it has had the most cases. On Tuesday Europe was surpassed by the Americas, which now has 1.86m as of Thursday.

Sappi, the South African pulp and paper company, decided just before lunchtime on Friday to cancel a €250m bond issue, judging the price it would have had to pay too high. The failure of this deal contrasts with the vigorous issuance by much riskier companies in the US market.

Italy has announced the details of a new BTP Italia sale, which will take place from Monday May 18, and be aimed at financing measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The UK covered bond market may be about to shrink. Deals maturing this year could well be refinanced at the Bank of England, while issuers could see their mortgage pools shrink as a result of the lockdown.

France's Financial Markets Authority (AMF) is weighing whether or not to extend a ban on short selling this week, as industry bodies warned the ban has harmed markets.

Boohoo, the UK online fashion retailer, priced a £197.68m equity capital raise on Thursday night, to raise funds to take advantage of M&A opportunities in the global fashion industry brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

There is a huge amount of information to take in at the best of times in the capital markets. During a crisis, it can be overwhelming. So, each week, Keeping Tabs brings you the very best of what we in the GlobalCapital newsroom have found most useful, interesting and informative from around the web.

As UK mid-cap companies face the worst disruption that most of them will have experienced, many are turning to their corporate brokers for advice on how to survive the coronavirus crisis. Carlton Nelson, co-head of Investec's corporate broking business, has worked on a number of Covid-19 capital raising deals for UK companies and shared his experiences of an unprecedented crisis — its effects on the business that needs to be done and how it is executed.

Zhenro Properties Group has ended the long absence of Chinese property companies from the dollar bond market, raising $200m from a transaction that was more than 10 times oversubscribed at its peak.

The Province of Buenos Aires (PBA) legally entered default this week amid pleas from its creditors for serious restructuring negotiations. But Argentine sovereign bondholders are still holding out hope that they may come to an agreement with the national government.

Holders of Avianca’s international bonds are keenly watching the Colombian government’s next move after the airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York.