SoftBank's record $11.1B junk bond, Paramount's $110B deal cleared to close, and the Sep. 21–25 Wall Street week
A scannable review of Sep. 21–25: SoftBank's record $11.1B high-yield bond sale, the settlement that cleared Paramount's $110B Warner Bros. Discovery deal to close, one $446M biotech IPO against two pulled listings, the Fed's stablecoin proposal, and Costco's $95.7B quarter.
It was a bond week: the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.106% on Wednesday, its highest since 2007, and SoftBank Group answered on Thursday with $11.1 billion of high-yield bonds, the largest sale of its kind on record 12. This issue covers Monday, Sept. 21 through Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026 ET.
IPOs and listings
One operating company priced in the week of Sept. 21–25 and two equity offerings that had been on the calendar came off it, which made the postponed deals the week's IPO story. The fall market's largest expected listing, the CVC-backed homeowners insurer Bamboo Insurance Services, pulled a $665 million deal at the eleventh hour; metal powders producer Amaero also postponed its debut, citing market conditions; and Holtec Nuclear, which had postponed a week earlier, withdrew its $825 million offering on Sept. 25 34.
| Issuer | Deal size | Market cap at IPO | Price vs. midpoint | Return at Sep. 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ADARx Pharmaceuticals (ADRX) 3 | $446M | $1,972M | +6% | +14% |
Live Oak Acquisition VI (LOVIU) 3 | $200M | $250M | 0% | 0% |
Bluerock Acquisition II (BRRKU) 3 | $150M | $203M | 0% | 0% |
ADARx Pharmaceuticals sold 26.3 million shares at $17, the top of its range, after earlier planning to sell 21.9 million, raising $446.3 million 5. The stock opened at $22.10, 30% above the offer price, and closed the week up about 14% 6. AbbVie agreed to invest up to $100 million in a concurrent private placement, taking about 4.9% of the company after the IPO 5. The lead programme is a Phase 3 candidate to prevent hereditary angioedema attacks, with topline data expected by the end of 2027 3.
Bamboo's pull followed the reception given to Orion180 Insurance Group, the insurer that priced a week earlier and has since fallen about 20% from its offer price 3. Bamboo's selling shareholders were offering 100% of the deal at a $3.3 billion market capitalisation, less than a year after buying in at $1.8 billion 6. Renaissance Capital, which compiles the weekly cohort, attributed the pullbacks to a mismatch between the price expectations issuers set after a strong second quarter and what buyers would pay in a choppier market 6.
Five companies and three blank-check vehicles filed. The largest was specialty insurance managing general agent TFP Group, at an estimated $350 million with Morgan Stanley as lead.
CTYCity Therapeutics: $100 million, phase 1 RNA interference biotech for thromboembolic diseases, Goldman Sachs as lead 3.IAMIambic Therapeutics: $100 million, phase 1 biotech developing small-molecule cancer therapies through its AI platform, J.P. Morgan as lead 3.RGNARegenLab USA: $35 million, regenerative-medicine devices for tissue repair, StoneX as lead 3.IDXGInterspace Biosciences: $20 million at a $58 million market capitalisation in a Nasdaq uplisting, molecular diagnostics for thyroid cancer, Lake Street Capital Markets as lead 3.SVATUSilicon Valley Acquisition II: $220 million SPAC for sectors undergoing structural transformation, Cohen & Company as lead 3.TCXBTCGX Acquisition II: $100 million SPAC for Asian healthcare, Guggenheim as lead 3.FLSCFrazier Life Sciences II: $75 million SPAC for biotech, Jefferies as lead 3.
The largest potential US listing moved closer: SK Hynix's Solidigm held pitch meetings this week with banks competing for roles on an IPO as early as next year that could value the NAND flash and solid-state drive subsidiary at up to $150 billion and raise about $15 billion, according to three people familiar with the matter 7. That would rank as the largest US semiconductor listing on record, against Arm Holdings' roughly $54 billion valuation at its 2023 debut 7. SK Hynix said Solidigm is reviewing options to strengthen its competitiveness and that no specific plans have been confirmed 7.
The Renaissance IPO Index returned 2.2% for the week against 1.2% for the S&P 500, and was up 17.9% for the year against 13.5% as of Sept. 24, when the quarter's review was published 68. Health care was the index's strongest sector at +3.8% while utilities fell 10.2%, and top constituent Astera Labs gained 20.2% on new memory-connectivity products 6. The third quarter produced 31 listings raising $34.9 billion, of which SK hynix's US offering accounted for $26.5 billion; excluding that deal, proceeds were $8.4 billion 8. For scale, the Securities and Exchange Commission counted 208 US IPOs raising more than $137 billion in the first half of 2026, against 180 raising more than $27 billion a year earlier, with follow-on offerings up 33% by proceeds 9.
Two listings are scheduled for the week of Sept. 28. Smart ring maker Oura plans to raise $2.1 billion at a $14.9 billion market capitalisation, selling 50 million shares at $40 to $44, with 73% of the deal sold by existing shareholders and Robinhood listed as a co-manager 10. Accelevation, a power distribution supplier to data-center customers, plans to raise $660 million at a $4.97 billion market capitalisation from 30 million shares at $20 to $24 10.
M&A
The largest transaction in the market moved from blocked to clear to close. Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery filed a joint motion on Monday, Sept. 21 setting out a settlement with California and 11 other states that dissolves the July 24 "No-Close Order" and lets the companies complete the $110 billion buyout without an admission of liability under Section 7 of the Clayton Act 11.
The decree writes the deal's obligations as numbers. The combined company must release at least 30 theatrical films a year in the first two years and 32 a year for the following three, including at least four independent films and at least 20% blockbusters or tentpoles annually, and must spend at least $300 million more a year on domestic film production than it did in 2025, a floor of $1.5 billion over five years 11. Each film short of the annual quota carries a $30 million penalty, split $15 million to Hollywood labour health and retirement trusts, $12 million to the California Film and Television Fund and $3 million to a national attorneys general antitrust fund 11. Paramount and Warner Bros must also negotiate basic-cable carriage deals separately for five years, keep one legacy company's confidential licensing data out of the other's negotiations, hold exhibitor fees flat for three years, maintain both studio lots, and create an independent News Editorial Independence Board for CBS News and CNN, with an independent monitoring trustee and a five-state oversight committee enforcing the terms 11.
Three days later Paramount launched syndication of a $7.5 billion senior secured term loan, part of a package it says will also include about $44.4 billion of additional secured debt. The financing detail sits in Major financings below.
Signed deals during the week:
- Priority Technology (
PRTH) agreed on Sept. 21 to be taken private by a group led by Chairman and Chief Executive Thomas Priore for $8.05 a share in cash, or about $1.6 billion. The price is a 65% premium to the unaffected share price before the initial proposal in November 2025 and more than 30% above Priore's opening $6 to $6.15. Funds advised by Searchlight Capital Partners provided equity commitments. The agreement carries a $15.75 million termination fee and a $35.25 million reverse fee, and is expected to close in the first half of 2027 12. - Rexel–GCG: France's Rexel agreed on Sept. 25 to buy US infrastructure distributor GCG for $1.4 billion, with completion targeted by the end of 2026 13.
- Eaton–COL Group: Eaton agreed to buy Italy's COL Group from Oaktree Capital Management for an enterprise value of €810 million ($923 million), adding medium-voltage switchgear and grid automation capacity in Europe. COL expects 2027 sales of €250 million; the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027 14.
- Nanexa–Novo Nordisk: Novo Nordisk licensed Nanexa's PharmaShell drug-release coating for up to five programmes in obesity, type 2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases, in a deal worth up to about €1.17 billion ($1.33 billion). Upfront plus development and regulatory milestones total €615 million, with the balance from sales milestones and low single-digit royalties on global sales 15.
- Genel Energy–Capricorn Energy: Genel raised its cash offer for Capricorn to $436 million, topping Norway's DNO and regaining Capricorn's board recommendation. Shareholders would receive about $5.74 a share, made up of $4.75 in cash and a $0.99 special dividend, a 10% premium to DNO's terms, and Genel has commitments covering about 39% of Capricorn's shares 16.
- BlackRock and IFM–Stack Infrastructure: a consortium including BlackRock's Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership and IFM Investors is in exclusive talks to buy Stack Infrastructure's Asia-Pacific data-center portfolio for up to $25 billion from Blue Owl Capital, Bloomberg News reported on Sept. 24. Talks could still fail 17.
- BASF–Evonik: BASF, the world's largest chemicals maker by revenue, has approached smaller German peer Evonik about a possible takeover, the Financial Times reported on Sept. 25 18.
- Nubank–Monzo: Brazil's Nubank is in early-stage talks about a combination that would value British digital bank Monzo at £8 billion to £10 billion ($10.6 billion to $13.25 billion), Sky News reported on Saturday. The alternative under board review is a funding round above £8 billion, earmarked for European expansion; Monzo was last valued at £4.5 billion in October 2024 19.
Regulatory and policy
The Federal Reserve proposed rules for dollar-backed stablecoins on Thursday, Sept. 24, as required by the GENIUS Act that Congress passed last year. The proposal would require payment stablecoin issuers under the Fed's supervision to back their tokens fully with specified reserve assets such as short-term Treasury bills, impose capital requirements for credit and operational risk, set guidelines for Fed-supervised banks that custody reserves for issuers, list the stablecoin activities those banks may engage in, and create a tailored application process for banks that want to issue their own 20. Comment runs for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register 20.
- Prediction markets: the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that Ohio and Tennessee may regulate Kalshi's event contracts under their gambling laws, holding the contracts are not swaps reserved to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The decision deepens a split with the 9th Circuit, which applied Nevada's gambling law, and the 3rd Circuit, which declined to apply New Jersey's, raising the prospect of Supreme Court review. Kalshi said it does not expect the ruling to survive further review 21.
- Bank oversight thresholds: the Fed is working on a plan to reindex the asset thresholds that trigger stricter supervision, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday. The current tiers sit at $100 billion, $250 billion and $700 billion of assets; the Fed is considering moving the highest to closer to $1 trillion and some requirements triggered at $100 billion to about $150 billion, with three of the people expecting a proposal later this year. Reindexing on nominal GDP could put the top threshold near $960 billion. Lenders that would gain room include U.S. Bancorp, Capital One, PNC and Truist, and the change could unlock mid-size bank consolidation 22.
- SEC censure: the Commission censured broker-dealer OTC Link LLC and fined it $575,000 on Sept. 22 for failing to establish, maintain and enforce written policies required by Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity for the OTC Link ATS between August 2016 and March 2025, deficiencies examiners flagged repeatedly without prompt remediation 23.
- Tokenised stocks: the New York Stock Exchange and crypto brokerage Blockchain.com announced a strategic collaboration on Sept. 23 to explore selling tokens representing NYSE-listed stocks and ETFs, alongside a data agreement in which NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange will distribute Blockchain.com's market data and the brokerage will use NYSE data in its app. The partners have not named the countries where the products would be sold 24.
Earnings and market-moving results
Costco reported its fiscal fourth quarter on Sept. 24 for the 16 weeks ended Aug. 30, and it was the largest US corporate result of the week by revenue. Net sales rose 11.2% to $93.873 billion and total revenue reached $95.723 billion, with comparable sales up 9.4% and digitally-enabled comparable sales up 19.5% 25. Net income was $2.998 billion, or $6.75 a diluted share, including a non-recurring benefit of $0.15 a share from IEEPA tariff refunds received in the quarter, less partial reinvestment of those refunds in member values 25. For the full year, net sales rose 10.1% to $297.247 billion and net income reached $9.226 billion, or $20.76 a diluted share 25.
Four other companies reported, all with fiscal quarters ending in late August:
- AutoZone (
AZO), fiscal fourth quarter reported Sept. 22: net sales of $6.595 billion, up 5.6%; domestic same-store sales up 1.6% and total company same-store sales up 1.5% in constant currency; gross margin of 53.3%, up 182 basis points of which 145 came from tariff refunds and 105 from a non-cash LIFO swing; operating profit up 10.1% to $1.317 billion; diluted earnings per share of $56.05 against $48.71. Full-year sales were $20.3 billion, up 7.4%, and the chain ended with 8,031 stores 26. - Cintas (
CTAS), fiscal first quarter reported Sept. 23: revenue of $3.01 billion, up 10.9% and up 8.9% organically; operating income up 15.2% to $711.9 million; diluted earnings per share of $1.36, or $1.39 adjusting for $14.4 million of transaction expenses on the proposed UniFirst acquisition. Cintas raised its fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $12.15 billion–$12.27 billion and adjusted earnings per share to $5.45–$5.54, and said the UniFirst deal is still with the Federal Trade Commission and is expected to close before the end of the calendar year 27. - Paychex (
PAYX), fiscal first quarter reported Sept. 23: total revenue of $1.6305 billion, up 6%; operating margin of 38.0% against 35.2%; diluted earnings per share of $1.21, up 14%; PEO and Insurance Solutions revenue up 12% to $367.6 million; and interest on funds held for clients up 5% to $49.8 million on higher average rates. Paychex raised its fiscal 2027 guidance for PEO and Insurance Solutions revenue growth to 7%–8% and for client-fund interest to $200 million–$210 million 28. - Darden Restaurants (
DRI), fiscal first quarter reported Sept. 24: sales of $3.2003 billion, up 5.1%, with blended same-restaurant sales up 3.1% across every segment. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations were $2.05, up 4.1% on last year's adjusted figure, while operating income fell 5.9% against a quarter that included a gain on the sale of Olive Garden Canada. Darden reaffirmed fiscal 2027 earnings guidance of $11.10–$11.35 a share and declared a quarterly dividend of $1.62 a share 29.
Major financings
SoftBank Group priced $11.1 billion of dollar- and euro-denominated senior notes on Sept. 24, the largest high-yield corporate bond sale on record globally and the largest Asia-Pacific and Japan non-financial corporate bond deal ever, ahead of Numericable Group's $10.9 billion from 2014 2. The dollar tranches were $1 billion at 3.5 years paying 8.625%, $4.5 billion at 5.5 years paying 9.25% and $4.5 billion at 7.5 years paying 9.75%; the euro tranches were two €500 million issues at four and six years, yielding 7.125% and 8%. SoftBank's previous dollar and euro sale, $7.3 billion in June 2021, yielded between 2.125% and 5.25% 2.
The proceeds fund SoftBank's $10 billion payment for the third tranche of its follow-on investment in OpenAI, expected to close on Oct. 1, and cancel a $10 billion bridge loan taken out for the same purpose 30. SoftBank has committed $64.6 billion to OpenAI, in which it will own roughly 13% by next week, and is separately buying ABB's robotics business for $5.4 billion and DigitalBridge for $3.1 billion. The cost of insuring its debt against default rose above 400 basis points this week from about 280 in June, and Fitch Ratings assigned the new notes BB+ 2.
Close behind it in size, Paramount Skydance launched syndication of a $7.5 billion senior secured term loan on Sept. 24 to help fund its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, and said it intends to raise about $44.4 billion of additional secured debt alongside previously announced financings 31. The combined company is expected to carry about $80 billion of debt after the deal closes 31.
Three smaller deals also priced or launched:
- Delek US Holdings (
DK): priced $400 million of 0.00% convertible senior notes due 2031, with a $60 million option for the initial purchasers. The initial conversion price of about $85.31 is a 27.5% premium to the Sept. 24 close of $66.91, capped calls are struck at about $117.09, and the deal is expected to close Sept. 29. Part of the proceeds repays its term loan 32. - Voyager Technologies (
VOYG): priced $350 million of 0% convertible senior notes due 2032, plus a $52.5 million option. The initial conversion price of about $40.82 is a 30% premium to the Sept. 23 close of $31.40, capped calls are struck at $78.50, and settlement is scheduled for Sept. 28 on expected net proceeds of about $340.4 million 33. - Brightline: 17 affiliates of the Florida private railroad filed for Chapter 11 in New Jersey late on Sept. 24, and the company said on Sept. 25 it had lined up $490 million of new financing to restructure parent debt while leaving $2.2 billion of rail-construction bond debt untouched. The restructuring would eliminate $3.3 billion of debt, and Brightline Trains Florida LLC, the operating company, stays outside bankruptcy 34.
References
- 1
- 2
- 3US IPO Weekly Recap: Postponed deals put damper on fall IPO market
renaissancecapital.com
- 4Nuclear plant equipment provider Holtec Nuclear withdraws $825 million IPO
renaissancecapital.com
- 5
- 6US IPO Weekly Winners & Losers
renaissancecapital.com
- 7
- 8Renaissance Capital's 3Q 2026 US IPO Market Review
renaissancecapital.com
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28Paychex Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2027 Results
globenewswire.com
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
This story was produced automatically by a channel. One sentence is all it takes for Neodrop to keep producing for you.