UK Sovereign

The narrowing gap over the course of this year between voters who intend to vote for Scottish independence and those who don’t may have been setting Gilt investors’ nerves on edge because of the potential impact of a UK breakup on their holdings. But they can breathe a little easier this week — thanks to an unlikely source.

The UK Debt Management Office raised its largest ever book for an inflation linked syndication on Tuesday when it opened a new 2058 line.

The UK Debt Management Office hired four banks to run an upcoming long-dated linker syndication on Friday. The deal will be the DMO’s second syndication of the financial year, following on from a January 2045 conventional last month that attracted the biggest book on a DMO deal in five years.

This week's scorecard covers the funding progress of sovereign issuers, with all of the eurozone periphery comfortably ahead in their programmes despite some recent wobbles in secondaries.

This week's scorecard covers the funding progress of sovereign issuers, with most issuers moving into the second half of their funding programmes. Next week's scorecard will deal with European supranationals and agencies.

This week’s first-ever Western sovereign sukuk represents a landmark moment in the global expansion of Islamic capital markets that offers significant potential to attract further new names to the product, writes Dan Alderson.

The UK Debt Management Office followed a £5bn 30 year print on Tuesday with the first sukuk from a western sovereign a day later.

The UK Debt Management Office raised £5bn of January 2045 money on Tuesday with a deal that was several times subscribed — despite the potential of an appearance by the governor of the Bank of England before the Treasury Select Committee to induce volatility in sterling bond markets.

While most sovereign debt management offices pride themselves on being dull, Spain — which hasn’t had the calmest of times in the primary issuance market over the last four years — decided to take a different tactic this week. And it paid off in bucket loads. Other sovereigns, both peripheral and core, should take note.

The UK Debt Management Office has hired a group of banks to syndicate its debut sukuk. It is expected to issue the £200m debut in the coming weeks — which means that it is likely to beat rival Western European sovereign Luxembourg in the race to become the first to issue. The UK DMO also named leads for a syndicated Gilt sale for the week of June 23.

This week's scorecard covers the funding progress of sovereign issuers, with every issuer with a funding year that matches the calendar year either over the halfway mark or approaching it. Next week's scorecard will deal with European supranationals and agencies.

The UK is likely to syndicate a new 30 year conventional bond in June, after finding overwhelming support for the tenor from investors and banks this week. An inflation linker of similar tenor could follow in the second quarter of its financial year, after the idea drew similar interest.