Europe

A group of shareholders in M&G have sold £117m ($150.3m) of stock in the company, following its demerger from its former parent Prudential, via an accelerated bookbuild.

Negative rates are expected to persist in covered bonds, forcing investors to widen their search for value. And with spreads likely to tighten as the European Central Bank ramps up buying from November, some are looking to local currency Nordic markets.

Newlat, the Italian food group, has extended bookbuilding on its IPO until October 24 and has shrunk the deal size, despite reports earlier this week that the deal was covered throughout its initial price range.

Andrea Diamanti is set to become deputy CEO of UniCredit Bank Russia. Fabio Fornaroli will now lead UniCredit’s Central and Eastern Europe investment bank.

JP Morgan has appointed Alex Watkins as head of equity capital markets for the UK, replacing Nicholas Hall. Meanwhile, the bank has picked a new head of its consumer and retail sector coverage team for UK investment banking.

Bain Capital has given in to a laundry list of demands from investors as they snubbed bonds for Kantar, resulting in a delay to the deal's schedule. In a rare case of aggressive investor push-back, covenants have now been flexed to the extreme and initial price thoughts look surprisingly high, given the exceptionally favourable market for new issuers.

Instituto de Crédito Oficial (Ico) held investor calls on Tuesday ahead of its return to the social bond market to complete its funding needs for the year.

Alvaro Estevez has joined JP Morgan from Bank of America, in order to lead a team that works with large multi-national companies.

UBS is reorganising its investment bank, trying to save $90m a year, it revealed on Tuesday, alongside a dismal set of third quarter results for underwriting and advisory.

Rabobank shrugged off a little price sensitivity this week to launch a green non-preferred senior bond at a spread that FIG bankers said was as much as 5bp through fair value.

SATS, the operator of Nordic fitness clubs, priced its IPO on Tuesday at Nkr23.50 a share. Despite the deal trading down, sellers were happy to get the deal done after a flurry of pulled listings this month.

Royal Bank of Canada was able to raise £400m of senior funding as though it was on 'autopilot' in the sterling market this week. It is the third Canadian issuer in a month to seek funding in this currency counting as total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC).