Corporate hybrids are booming, thanks to surging appetite from investors in Asia and Europe – and potentially even the US. These deals offer a great pick-up over anaemic senior spreads. But are buyers turning a blind eye to the risks in their hunt for yield?

Japan’s Seibu Holdings and US private equity house Cerberus are at each other’s throats. Cerberus claims that it can improve Seibu’s management; Seibu’s other stakeholders say Cerberus is a vulture fund intent on asset stripping.

Halfway through the second quarter of 2013, global investment banking revenues had reached $25.7 billion, some 14% ahead of the average year-to-date total over the past 10 years. Debt capital markets revenue is running at a record level, having hit $9.2 billion between the start of 2013 and mid-May. Syndicated loan revenue is markedly up on the same period in 2012, as is global equity capital markets revenue for the banks as IPOs return. Only M&A remains quiet.

More common sense, along the lines of the EC reversal of proposed pension-funding rules, needs to prevail in financial services regulation.

Tentative recovery gains momentum; Choppy trading persists

Having lobbied hard against most new financial regulation for the past five years, the banking industry’s valid objections to the proposed financial transaction (Tobin) tax risk falling on deaf ears.

Rights of residence in Australia might not be enough to entice Chinese investment; hefty taxes on mining are a deterrent.

Big deals come thick and fast from the EU periphery; Italy monitors US dollar market

Sprint considering rival offer; Raine leads Softbank advisers

Televisa takes up global peso structure; Femsa returns to international market

QInvest bid for EFG Hermes collapses; New buyouts show what is possible

Asian bond issues are attracting levels of over-subscription that are taxing bankers already squeezed by inflation in bookrunner numbers.

Clear pathway to resolution; market ‘massively’ underpricing uncertainty.

Danger of ‘Lehman-type event’; advocates US model of receivership.

QE has created ‘drugged’ environment; prime risk is that of economic recovery.

Buyout firms struggle with first closes; exits remain tricky, extending holding period of portfolio assets.

Firm seen as ‘catalyst for consolidation’; Fierce competition driving down fees

CMA looking at foreign access; Revenues lagging UAE

BBVA’s additional tier 1 capital raising generated an astonishing €9 billion of orders, prompting bankers to proclaim it the opening of a big new market. But the staggering array and complexity of conversion triggers contained in the deal has set off alarm bells among investors.

High capital ratio now a key part of strategy; new issue might help meet US demand.

ING IPO ‘eye opener’ for other European FIs; RBS Citizens sell-off might be advanced.

Local banks outgun global leads; Brasil Plural the latest ECM contender

Qatar’s investment in VTB helps future deals between Russia and the Gulf, but relations will remain difficult.

At the Chelsea Flower Show in London last month, the floral displays were not the only brilliant thing catching the attention of throngs of visitors.

Jamie Dimon comfortably survived an attempt to split his combined chairman and CEO role at JPMorgan, which will allow him to set the terms of his eventual departure from the bank. He should start by appointing a president to give a potential successor a trial run.

Ramin Toloui, global co-head of emerging markets, explains what GDP-weighted indices have meant for his firm Pimco.

The Australian dollar, once the darling of currency investors, has fallen firmly out of favour, with the pace of the move taking many by surprise.

HSBC’s Flint sees tension rise between home and host regulators; Deutsche says balkanization threatens financial stability.