UK

The IPO of Dr Martens, the UK bootmaker, shut on Thursday, two days earlier than planned after the company attracted heavy demand in its first few days of bookbuilding.

China Citic Bank Corp has raised $550m from its return to the public dollar debt market after a break of more than three years. The bank priced inside fair value estimates, leading to a large drop in the final order book.

UK covered bonds are trading close to where they would be expected, given their new regulatory treatment outside the European Union. And while euro supply prospects this year could improve on last year’s paltry sum, the vast swathe of bonds redeeming in the same period translates to a technical imbalance which will support spreads.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, January 25. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Some small UK housing associations are preparing to launch private placements, breathing life into the product after a month of next to no deal flow.

JD Sports, the UK sporting equipment retailer, is looking at the possibility of raising equity capital to help it through the next few months of Covid-19 lockdowns and to take advantage of investment opportunities in the future.

Moonpig, the online greetings card company, has set a price range on its IPO, which values the company at almost £1.2bn at the top of the range.

A cross-party group of UK members of Parliament has written to Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, calling on the Bank to start greening its quantitative easing and Covid support programmes.

Rating: Aa3/AA/AA-

Mark Soriano joins Natixis — Deutsche's Frazer Ross is taking a sabbatical — Fidelity hires private credit team

Companies are increasingly turning to cornerstone and anchor investors to support their IPOs across the price range before deals are launched. While the phenomenon is common in Asia and the Nordic markets, it has been rarer in UK and most continental European deals until now, but the trend is turning into the norm, reports Sam Kerr.

Two Russian gold miners are among a number of Russian companies looking at listing possibilities in 2021 capitalising on a strong 2020 for the precious metal.