UK Sovereign

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.

Bonds of UK pub companies fell on Wednesday after the House of Commons passed a surprise amendment to a bill, which if it becomes law will mean pub tenants can no longer be obliged to buy beer from their owners.

Informa, the UK business-to-business publishing and events group, launched a cash box placing on Tuesday morning, hoping to raise about £275m to fully fund an acquisition of Hanley Wood Exhibitions, a US events business, which was announced simultaneously. Informa got the deal done, but only raised £207m after some top shareholders said they preferred a smaller deal.

Deutsche Bank and Barclays on Tuesday evening launched a block trade of a 10.09% stake worth £83m in Crest Nicholson, the UK housebuilder.

A fire in its largest factory in Spain has led meat processor Campofrio to abandon plans to issue a bond to refinance senior unsecured notes maturing in 2016.

British Sky Broadcasting, the UK pay TV company, priced €850m and £750m of listed bonds on Monday over three maturities to fund its acquisition of Sky Deutschland. The deal was no blowout — one tranche was priced at the level of initial price thoughts, the others only 5bp tighter — but with an additional €400m from a private placement on the same day, Sky says it has now completed the financing for its acquisitions.

Most high yield companies in Europe newly rated since 2010 have fallen short of their own growth forecasts, Moody's has found, and economic conditions spell further challenges in 2014.

Abengoa’s shares and bonds have bounced back this week, after their dizzying falls at the end of last week, when investors were alarmed that the Spanish renewable energy company had classified its recent green bond issue as non-recourse debt. But the securities are not right back to their previous levels, suggesting concerns linger about the company.

Virgin Money, the UK challenger bank backed by Richard Branson and Wilbur Ross, succeeded in pricing its £312m IPO on Wednesday, though at the bottom of the price range. The sale brought the former Northern Rock back to the stockmarket, six and a half years after it was nationalised after suffering a deposit run in 2007.

Playtech, the UK gaming software developer, on Wednesday completed a €297m senior, unsecured convertible bond due 2019.