Banks

Highgate School is marketing a US private placement (USPP), according to two USPP players. The market has become a home for private and public schools looking for long-term financing.

The US corporate new issuance calendar took a breather on Thursday after clocking up its busiest week of the year with $30bn of supply in just three days. Borrowers remained on the sidelines as investors digested the supply onslaught that brought bulging order books and tight pricing.

UBS is re-balancing its corporate finance business to end its reliance on its Financial Institutions Group with impressive results, writes David Rothnie.

Two Nordic telecoms companies sold euro corporate bonds this week after both spending nearly two years on the sidelines. Both employed no-grow strategies, and Swedish company Telia sold the longest maturity corporate bond deal of 2019 so far.

Uzbekistan opened a new chapter in emerging market bonds on Wednesday, printing a $1bn dual tranche deal. Market participants are expecting a swathe of other issuers from the country to follow the sovereign into the capital markets, although soggy trading on Thursday has stiffened investor resolve to hold firmer on pricing on subsequent Uzbek deals, writes Francesca Young.

Record breaking Italian football club Juventus made its debut in the corporate bond market on Wednesday. It used the Agnelli family’s involvement in the ownership and running of the club for nearly a century to market the bond, but Italian football clubs do not have a great financial track record, writes Nigel Owen.

Commerzbank has faced some resistance from staff over moves from the UK to continental Europe in preparation for Brexit, although the bank says those who have moved have no regrets. Meanwhile, margin pressure has been weighing on the bank’s corporate clients division, but there were positive signs in its financial institutions business last quarter.

KfW made a strong return to the Canadian dollar market on Thursday after 3.5 years away from the currency, as it tightened pricing on its comeback deal. The German agency came alongside a green bond in the currency from a Canadian province.

Deutsche Bank has pulled about $5.25bn equivalent of non-preferred senior funding out of the market in the past two weeks, stomaching higher funding costs than some of its peers. The bank’s treasurer told GlobalCapital this week that it was prudent to step into the market now, with the issuer having cut through half of its target for loss-absorbing debt issuance in 2019.

Société Générale has chosen Olivier Biraud to work with a portfolio of large French companies as a relationship manager.

Crédit Agricole provided no let-up in the disappointing performances of fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) desks in French banks’ fourth quarter results. By one measure it was the lender's worst quarterly result there in more than six years.

UK media company Future has signed a £90m revolver and an infrastructure project is attracting continental demand, as European banks still show strong interest into sterling-denominated transactions despite the uncertainty around Brexit headed into Thursday’s parliamentary debate.