Lloyds Bank

Cardiff University broke the two week silence in Europe's investment grade corporate bond market with a £300m deal on Monday that achieved the lowest coupon ever for a public benchmark bond by a UK university.

The retail sale of Lloyds Bank shares will be delayed, rather than held this spring as planned, UK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne said today.

DebtXplained, the leveraged finance covenant specialist, has hired a senior banker from Lloyds — and says that more recruitment of capital markets bankers is to come.

Kurt Geiger, the luxury UK shoe retailer, is holding bank meetings on Friday for a £150m buyout facility backing its £245m acquisition by Cinven from Sycamore Partners.

Cardiff University has mandated three banks for its debut bond, the latest offering in a run of debt issuance from the UK higher education sector, writes Ross Lancaster.

UniCredit has offered to buy back up to €1.8bn of subordinated bonds mainly held by retail investors for the third time this year, as it looks to clean up its capital structure.

Europe’s corporate bond market may be in a shabby state, but bankers are expecting a crop of public and private deals from a prestigious group of borrowers: UK universities and charities, write Rob Cooke and Toby Fildes.

The European primary market has been left almost bare this week, as a run of gloomy headlines weighed on secondary performance and left investors cautious.

Lloyds Banking Group was the only FIG issuer to brave the senior unsecured dollar market this week as Wall Street’s biggest banks postponed their traditional post-earnings dash and issuance stalled at a seven-year low.

Compagnie de Financement Foncier had been expected to open books for a 10 year benchmark on Wednesday, but postponed the deal blaming market conditions. Rival bankers said the long tenor was the wrong choice for the weak market.

UK banks could look to stockpile their funding in 2016, as the country’s forthcoming EU membership referendum will cause capital markets to snarl up later in the year.

Crédit Agricole issued the one and only covered bond of the week on Thursday and showed that it is possible to get a strong outcome in a tough market.