Lloyds Bank

Industrial Commercial Bank of China’s London branch and subsidiary signed a self-arranged $1.25bn facility in an oversubscribed deal with 16 banks on Tuesday. The deal follows a spate of lending by the bank in emerging market deals.

UK corporates are preparing for the large UK banks to bring down their ring-fences, a move that could shake up the banking landscape and push more corporates to sign credit support annexes with their banks.

After three years away, UK producer of grocery and sweets Premier Foods returned to the bond market with a £210m fiver year non-call one floater to join 2017’s sterling issuance comeback.

Lloyds Bank has hired a banker from Nationwide Building Society to work in its corporate treasury team.

Senior bank debt investors in Europe are losing their right to accelerate payments of interest or principal. The process has been gradual, low key and at times even overlooked, but it is one of the most fundamental developments in the recent history of the senior bond market.

Clare Francis, head of global corporates at Lloyds, is to leave the UK firm.

Aubrey Simpson-Orlebar has joined Tim Metzgen’s corporate debt advisory team at Marlborough Partners as a senior advisor.

General Motors Financial Co made its first journey of the year to the euro bond market on Wednesday, issuing a €1bn four year floating rate note.

The revival of sterling bond issuance powered ahead on Thursday, as Procter & Gamble brought a £750m deal that one banker said was “as rare as Halley’s Comet”. That coincided with a £1bn covered bond from Santander and a £400m debut from Martlet Homes.

Unibail-Rodamco has signed today its green loan, one of the first syndicated facilities to offer the borrower a pricing benefit if it hits sustainability targets. The loan was increased twice in syndication after being oversubscribed, from €500m to €600m and then to €650m.

Drax Group, the UK energy holding company, held a roadshow on Wednesday and Thursday for a £500m fixed and floating rate senior secured bond offering, following its acquisition of Opus Energy earlier this year, and further increased it to £550m on Friday.

Hard on the heels of Unibail-Rodamco’s ground-breaking green loan, believed to be the first large corporate financing to give the borrower a pricing benefit if it hits sustainability targets, Koninklijke Philips, the Dutch health technology group, has signed a similar €1bn loan linked to its sustainability rating, writes Jon Hay.