UK

The UK Debt Management Office intends to sell a new 15 year Gilt via syndication in early September for which it will seek feedback through a consultation with Gilt market participants next week.

Segro, the FTSE 100 UK real estate investment trust, has sold €450m of private placements, according to market sources. The largest tranche was the longest, €200m at 20 years, which is sign of investors' confidence.

UK pub owner Stonegate held calls with investors on Monday for a bond issue, to partly refinance £2.73bn worth of acquisition facilities used to acquire a larger competitor, Ei. Stonegate is set to be one of the first UK borrowers hit by coronavirus to sell high yield notes.

Freeline Theraputics, the UK gene therapeutics company, has filed to list in the US on the Nasdaq exchange, continuing the trend of biotech companies seeking to raise capital in the equity capital markets.

Each week, Keeping Tabs brings you the very best of what we have found most useful, interesting and informative from around the web. This week: what’s next for the US after its war on Huawei, the impact that more robots would have on the gender pay gap, and a look on the bright side of Europe’s mishmash of state guarantee schemes.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress European sovereigns have made in their funding programmes in mid-July.

HICL Infrastructure, the UK-based infrastructure equity investor, has launched a capital raise to repay £75m worth of debt in order to shore up its finances for further acquisitions.

In this round-up, the UK bars Huawei Technologies from its 5G mobile network, the Chinese foreign ministry retaliates against recent US sanctions, and Donald Trump signs an executive order that ends Hong Kong’s preferential trade treatment.

Financial institutions are set to spend the summer months monitoring conditions for issuance in order to continue funding this year or to frontload funding needs for next year, according to deal arrangers.

Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital has completed a £116m growth capital raising to fund further M&A opportunities.

The UK Debt Management Office outlined its borrowing plan for the period of September through to the end of November on Thursday, announcing that it plans to issue a minimum of two syndicated Gilts and 38 auctions during the period as its funding needs soar to unprecedented levels as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

HSBC’s global head of ECM is under no illusions about the challenges the bank faces but says HSBC’s restructuring is not one of them. David Rothnie reports.