UK Sovereign

The UK’s Debt Management Office has reduced its funding target for the 2014-2015 financial year by £1.3bn following the autumn statement by chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne on Wednesday.

A triumphant sovereign return, and an innovative socially responsible deal helped the sukuk market smash through its previous record year for issuance volumes. Unusual but impressive trades from Pakistan and the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) helped the growing asset class beat its previous annual dollar issuance record set in 2012 and put the gloss on a burgeoning fourth quarter run of deals.

It’s often the simple things that can make all the difference in whether one has a productive meeting. Room ergonomics, the view out of the window and a decent cup of coffee are all apposite metrics to consider in relation to your loan banker’s psyche.

When Wheatley Group, a Scottish association of social housing providers, sold £250m of 30 year bonds on Thursday, the big question for investors was how to price in the possibility of a ‘Yes’ vote in a possible second Scottish independence referendum.

The poll for GlobalCapital’s Syndicated Loans Awards is still open, but not for long – the cut off for voting is this Friday, November 21.

The University of Northampton became the first university to make use of the UK's Infrastructure Guarantee scheme when it issued a £231.5m 40 year bond guaranteed by the government on Wednesday.

Hapag-Lloyd, the German container shipping company, jumped into the high yield bond market on Thursday for a drive-by sale of a €250m bond, to refinance a deal maturing next year.

Belden, the US cable maker, has tapped its 2023 bond for €200m, triggering a one notch downgrade by Moody's to Ba2 — but investors shrugged off the change.

Martin Taylor, an external member of the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee, on Wednesday night delivered a broadside attacking the additional tier one market as it exists today, in a speech to the Oliver Wyman Institute.

The International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) will conduct a final two day roadshow ahead of its first ever sukuk transaction — a ground-breaking Islamic deal that will fund vaccine and immunisation procurement.

Big Yellow Group, the UK provider of self-storage space, on Wednesday successfully completed the placing of over 14m new ordinary shares at Tuesday's closing share price of £5.475.

AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company, priced a €750m seven year bond on Wednesday. It was four times oversubscribed and priced somewhere near the middle of the broad range suggested by the bonds of its peers.