Barclays

The UK’s Helical has amended and extended its bank debt, with the office real estate firm ramping up the size of its revolving credit facility to £400m.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

Barclays performed better than its peers in fixed income, currencies and commodities over the first half of the year, helping it beat consensus estimates when it reported results on Thursday. The slide in sterling and a one-off gain from the IPO of Tradeweb flattered the results in its home currency.

The new UK government’s cavalier approach to Brexit has had a brutal impact on the value of sterling, making it less likely that UK banks will want to pay back the principal on some of their foreign currency additional tier ones (AT1s), writes Tyler Davies.

The European Investment Bank set two records in the sterling bond market this week. The supranational issued the largest ever single tranche socially responsible bond in sterling across any sector, which took supranational and agency supply in the currency to an all-time annual high — even though it’s only August.

Barclays said on Thursday that it will redeem three of its additional tier one (AT1) bonds in September, though a weaker pound means that paying the debt back will eat into its common equity tier one ratio.

Lloyds Banking Group has returned to the Aussie dollar market for the first time since May 2018, offering investors the chance to invest in two tranches of senior debt at the operating company level. The issuer follows a wave of European and UK financial institutions making their way down under.

Ireland’s Keywords Studios has signed a new revolving credit facility of up to €140m, increasing its bank line as the video games studio remains on the hunt for acquisitions.

Investment grade corporate bond issuance is all but becalmed, but the high yield market is bustling with activity, as a wide variety of companies bring deals, including several strategic capital raisings and M&A financings.

UBS and Citi trader Tom Hayes was jailed for 11 years for manipulating Libor. But while the trader argued that he was made a scapegoat for the financial crisis, perhaps the rate he rigged is a bigger victim.

A refinancing package of €1.23bn has lifted some pressure off Swiss aviation services company Swissport and driven Moody’s to change its ratings outlook on the company from negative to stable. Parent HNA has had a fire sale of assets to combat a cash crunch, and a new portability clause is likely a sign of its desire to exit from the Swiss firm.

The state of Israel returned to the yen market for the first time in 18 years this week to raise ¥15bn ($140m) of seven year debt. The private placement marks the state’s third visit to the capital markets in 2019 and its first non-euro trade of the year.