NatWest Markets

Royal Bank of Scotland is moving forward with its plans to divest its Williams & Glyn branch network, but it is as yet unclear whether the sale will be done as an IPO or a straight sale.

With plenty of cash to deploy following a large number of redemptions, sterling investors piled into what looks likely to be KfW’s last sterling offering of the year on Tuesday.

Royal Bank of Scotland has put Anne Gebuhrer and Tim Skeet, both managing directors in FIG DCM, at risk of redundancy, adding their names to a list of FIG and corporate bankers the UK bank has recently let go.

American Honda Finance visited the sterling bond market for a £250m seven year deal on Monday, in the same week that Total and Daimler also raised short dated sterling bonds.

David Lloyd Leisure, the TDR Capital-owned UK gym and spa firm, and Cooper, the French pharmaceuticals distributor, widened loan pricing this week as the leveraged market became increasingly selective.

Intesa Sanpaolo issued a €1.25bn 10 year covered bond on Wednesday, a transaction that did not initially seem to be an obvious trade, but which in the end proved very successful.

Royal Bank of Scotland has put Anne Gebuhrer, another managing director in its FIG DCM team, at risk of redundancy.

Daimler has tapped the sterling bond market for a £250m six year trade, the latest in a steady line of names from the auto sector to do so in a maturity below the market's preference.

Tim Skeet, head of covered bond origination, has been put at risk of redundancy at Royal Bank of Scotland.

Cooper, the French pharmaceuticals distributor, has priced the term loan ‘B’ for its acquisition by Charterhouse at 475bp over Euribor, with an original issue discount of 99.5, the wide end of initial talk that began at 450bp.

Legal & General Investment Management, the UK asset manager, which has been involved on the fringes of the private placement market for some years, is making a concerted push to increase its activity, with the hire of a former banker at Royal Bank of Scotland.

Royal Bank of Scotland has signed up three buyside firms to fund a planned expansion of its UK mid-market private equity origination business. AIG Asset Management, Hermes and M&G are all entering the sector for the first time, and will have privileged access to new originations from the British bank.