Lloyds Bank

UK banks have surfaced in the unsecured debt markets for the first time in about four months, buoyed by optimism about a series of crucial votes on Brexit in parliament next week. Experts suggest that the country’s financial institutions will have to get used to these sorts of narrow issuance windows, with the country yet to even start the most challenging stages of its exit from the European Union.

UK financial institutions are returning to the debt markets ahead of a fresh vote on the Brexit withdrawal agreement next week, with Lloyds Banking Group hitting the US market on Tuesday and HSBC Holdings turning to sterling after a dollar transaction earlier in the week.

Cadent Gas has sold £680m-equivalent of US private placements (US PP) across several tranches, in dollars and sterling, according to market participants, in one of the largest PP transactions from a UK utility on record. This is evidence that PP investors are not shying away from UK names, market participants claim, even amid the uncertainty of Brexit.

Lloyds Banking Group has appointed William Chalmers, a Morgan Stanley FIG banker, as its next chief financial officer.

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.

Cadent Gas has entered the US private placement (US PP) market via Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Lloyds, according to market participants.

Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) has launched a $150m US private placement, according to two US PP participants.

Here Technologies, the Dutch provider of mapping and location services, has signed a €500m credit facility. Some European loans bankers insist they are swamped with deals, even though they have just finished the quietest January for years.

Spanish telecoms company Telefónica on Monday launched the first green bond in euros from the telecoms sector. The firm, rated as one of Spain’s leading companies in the fight against climate change, published its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework in November but had to wait two months to sell its first green bond.

The universities of Aberdeen and Leicester are marketing US private placements (US PP), it is understood, both of which willl be inaugural transactions.

The day after the UK government mandated Teresa May to go to Brussels and renegotiate the country’s exit agreement with the European Union, the UK electricity transmission company National Grid tested investors’ appetites for UK assets and found a host of willing buyers without having to offer much of a premium.

Thames Water sold roughly £220m of US private placement notes this January.