The Treasury Department appears to have approved Hartford Financial Services bid to repay its US$3.4bn TARP obligation. The insurance and financial services firm has mandated Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan as joint bookrunners on concurrent offerings of equity, convertible preferred stock and debt targeting US$2.4bn in total proceeds.
The equity and convertible deals are expected to [...]

Citigroup launched its much anticipated carve-out IPO of Primerica on Wednesday morning. Originally filed as a US$100m deal, Citigroup’s life insurance unit could fetch as much as US$252m if the bank’s 18m shares are priced at the top of the US$12-$14 indicative range.
The deal is expected to price on March 31 following a global roadshow. [...]

FT Alphaville asks a legitimate question this morning about Tidjane Thiam’s commitment to the Prudential cause after Societe Generale announced the Pru boss would join its board. A surprising move considering he is currently meant to be selling an acquisition to investors that will double the size of his business:
FT Alphaville:
If you thought Tidjane Thiam [...]

The ambitious IPO for Brazilian oil services company OSX was restructured last night as the tough market for new issues meant the huge deal had to be resized. OSX delayed the pricing date on its up to R$9.9bn (US$5.57bn) IPO by one day and lowered the price range on the shares. The size is also [...]

With African Barrick Gold due to close this week and EnQuest at the end of the month, the imminent launch of an up to US$400m IPO of Wilh. Wilhemsen’s shipping and logistics unit puts spin-offs back in focus.
A banker away from the Wilh. Wilhemsen (WWI) deal noted that such offerings are popular with investors, but are [...]

Sellers continue to take advantage of an improving M&A climate. The latest example came on Monday when Apax Partners agreed to sell its Tommy Hilfiger to Phillips-Van Heusen for €2.2bn (US$3.0bn) in cash and stock. Equity will play a financing role but Tommy Hilfiger has been effectively removed from any list of potential new issues.
Having [...]

Talk about the rising prominence of small boutique investment banking firms. Sutha Kandiah, managing director and joint head of equity capital markets Asia for UBS has quit his job and is joining Religare Capital Markets (RCML) to build the investment bank’s regional and global ECM franchise.
Currently on gardening leave, Kandiah will start work in his [...]

Card and identity protection business CPP Group has set a target of £150m for its IPO, setting a price range three days into a decoupled bookbuilding process.
Sources said a price range of 225p–270p has gone out, with the offering split between approximately £30m of primary and £120m of secondary.
A freefloat of around 40% implies a [...]

Sole book Credit Suisse has launched a US$150m five-year put three CB for Bakrie Land. Coupon is being marketed in 7.875%-8.625% range while premium is being shown around 20%-25%. The deal will be marketed over three days and on Friday it is set to price. There is full dividend protection and there is also an equity [...]

A mini league table of live IPOs shows a stark difference in strategy between banks:

Bank
Live IPOs as bookrunner

JP Morgan
9

Morgan Stanley
3

Goldman Sachs
2

Deutsche Bank
2

UBS
2

Liberum
2

Seymour Pierce
1

Oriel
1

RMB
1

Nordea
1

Foroya Banki
1

Canaccord
1

Renaissance Capital
1

Commerzbank
1

BofA Merrill
1

Evolution
1

Today marks a year since the FTSE 100 hit a low of below 3,500. While the index is up 60% since, sentiment is not. Other deals are being decoupled while [...]