UK

JP Morgan has emerged as the lender to a new Super League in European football. The US bank is committing to provide at least €3.5bn in debt for infrastructure projects, in the biggest shake-up of the world’s most popular sport in a generation. While highly controversial and not short of criticism, the new league will make its founding clubs more attractive investments.

Synlab, the German laboratory diagnostic services company, has set the terms for its €1bn plus IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

DirectBooks, a platform for primary bond issuance initiated by a group of banks, has added the ability to handle euro and sterling deal announcements as well as a new senior member of staff to run its European business.

The UK Debt Management Office has selected the banks to lead the first syndicated transaction of its 2021/2022 borrowing programme.

Bain Capital has trimmed its stake in TI Fluid Systems, the UK maker of automobile fluid delivery systems that floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2017.

Santander’s head of private placements has resigned from the bank.

Institutional investors are weighing up governance at elite UK private schools after a series of serious sexual assault allegations emerged from the sector. As certain private schools look for new deals to add to the £500m they have already raised, investors are focusing on how schools have handled the ensuing crisis.

Italian asset manager Anima Holding sold €300m of senior debt against a quiet backdrop this week, having decided to target the popular seven year tenor.

The University of Surrey has issued a US private placement, according to market sources, less than a month after King’s College, London returned to the market. Institutional investors are regaining confidence in the UK’s higher education sector, after a year in which revenues shrank and student intake became uncertain.

Lloyds Bank has appointed a senior banker to lead a new 16 strong team structuring environmental, social and governance products and services for companies in the UK, and plans to hire further staff externally.

Montea, the real estate investment trust in Belgium, has sold €235m of green US private placements. The deal is the latest in a succession green trades to hit the market.

Aviva has asked investors to agree to a change in the terms of three of its tier two bonds, to try and make sure they revert to spreads over Sonia rather than Libor if they live on past their first call dates.