NatWest Markets

Babcock International, the UK support company for infrastructure and defence services, issued a £250m no-grow bond on Tuesday, the same day the Bank of England began buying sterling corporate bonds.

Vodafone shrugged off a troubling start to the week for primary bond markets on Tuesday by selling a benchmark long seven year transaction that was more than three times oversubscribed and won a single digit concession.

A pair of public sector borrowers were able to sell tightly priced euro deals on Tuesday, with another two trades likely to follow on Wednesday.

High Speed Rail Finance, the financing vehicle for the High Speed 1 (HS1) project — the train line between London and the channel tunnel to France — said on Monday it was planning on issuing £314m of private placement notes.

Banks are poised to seize this year’s best window for new regulatory capital issues after the Federal Reserve decided against lifting interest rates this week. With primary activity down $15bn on 2015 in Europe and secondary markets reacting positively to the Fed, investors are expecting supply across all asset classes.

Barclays launched a tender offer for up to £1.7bn of its outstanding subordinated debt this week, as the bank extends a strong and rapid drive towards a holding company funding model.

Deutsche Bank is at real risk of failing to pay coupons on its additional tier one instruments, as a potential $14bn US RMBS settlement threatens to erase the bank's available distributable items (ADIs). Outstanding DB AT1 securities reacted accordingly last Friday, shooting nearly 200bp wider.

UK supermarket chain WM Morrison Supermarkets, better known as Morrison’s, has triggered an extension option on its £1.35bn revolving credit facility.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten has kicked the week off with a long dated tap in euros and a mandate for a follow-up two year dollar benchmark, which will share Tuesday's market with two other dollar trades.

A pair of issuers printed at the two maturity extremes of what is possible in euro benchmarks this week, as the European Central Bank's governing council on Thursday held back from any dramatic announcements that would have opened up a wider range of issuance possibilities.

Yankee banks plundered the dollar market as the high-grade sector got off to a blistering start following the Labor Day holiday.

The sterling market for public sector borrowers woke from its summer slumber with a bang this week, as a series of issuers approached the currency in a variety of ways and for different reasons.