UK

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, May 18. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Governments across the world are scrambling to conjure up funds to offset the financial devastation of the coronavirus pandemic, including in the UK, which is expected to raise about £250bn between April and August alone. GlobalCapital spoke to Roger Bootle, economist and chairman of Capital Economics and recent author of “The AI Economy”, about the long-term implications of the UK’s higher borrowing.

London insurance underwriter Beazley plc completed a £247m growth capital raising on Tuesday to position itself for expansion once the pandemic subsides, and to shore up its balance sheet.

Intesa Sanpaolo became the first Italian bank to raise funding during the coronavirus pandemic this week. It offered a healthy premium for its five year senior deal, but the bonds have performed very well in the secondary market.

The UK covered bond market may be about to shrink. Deals maturing this year could well be refinanced at the Bank of England, while issuers could see their mortgage pools shrink as a result of the lockdown.

Barclays opened books on a new tier two capital issue in sterling on Friday, as the financial markets looked set to end a volatile week on a positive note.

Boohoo, the UK online fashion retailer, priced a £197.68m equity capital raise on Thursday night, to raise funds to take advantage of M&A opportunities in the global fashion industry brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

Allianz was calling for investment in a €1bn tier two capital issue on Friday, a couple of days after disclosing a tough set of results for the first quarter. The weaker performance largely stemmed from Covid-19, which weighed heavily on the German insurer’s Solvency II capital ratio.

As UK mid-cap companies face the worst disruption that most of them will have experienced, many are turning to their corporate brokers for advice on how to survive the coronavirus crisis. Carlton Nelson, co-head of Investec's corporate broking business, has worked on a number of Covid-19 capital raising deals for UK companies and shared his experiences of an unprecedented crisis — its effects on the business that needs to be done and how it is executed.

The UK Debt Management Office launched its first bond syndication of the new financial year on Tuesday, smashing all previous records for deal and order book size and making a healthy start on its largest ever borrowing programme in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the huge size, the deal caused “barely a ripple”, thanks to the support of the Bank of England’s asset purchase facility.

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The European Central Bank said this week that it wants to be ‘pragmatic’ with its supervisory review and evaluation process (SREP) this year, keeping Pillar 2 capital requirements at stable levels for banks amid the coronavirus crisis.