UK

BBC Commercial Holdings, a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that produces and sells content to other broadcasters across the world, has decided to delay a £170m debt refinancing in the US private placement market, according to market sources, as bankers struggle to cope with price discovery.

Cuts made to senior staff in the debt markets are coming home to roost now that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are coming to bear on loans and private placements. Old hands that navigated the previous crises are in short supply as borrowers and investors look to implement deal amendments to cope with a coming recession.

The Financial Conduct Authority, the City regulator, has said it will not introduce a short selling ban, since there was no proof that short selling was responsible for the recent market falls.

Institutional investors in the US private placement market are preparing for a round of covenant waivers, as companies brace for the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Bankers in turn are shelving primary issuance plans and turning their attention to winning amendment mandates.

Equity market participants have welcomed the Financial Conduct Authority's call to UK companies to hold off on publishing preliminary financial statements.

The UK Debt Management Office will boost the size of its Gilt issuance programme for its upcoming financial year by up to an additional £45bn in response to the UK’s fiscal package to counter the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a head of UK rates strategy.

The Bank of England said on Friday morning that UK banks should not treat coronavirus-impacted exposures as impaired assets under IFRS 9 accounting standards, as it unveiled new guidance around the impact of the pandemic.

Hotel Chocolat, the UK chocolatier and retailer, sold 9.77m new shares after revealing that its revenues in March have been damaged by the Covid-19 coronavirus; the company hopes the capital will give it flexibility in the weeks and months ahead. More UK SMEs will no doubt follow it to market over the next few weeks.

International banks are at risk of depleting their capital reserves as they try to keep credit flowing to companies through the coronavirus crisis. Governments and regulators have already responded, but the sector is screaming out for more work to be done to ease the burden of complying with stringent accounting and supervisory rules, reports Tyler Davies.

After an extraordinary Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Thursday, the Bank of England voted to drop the base rate by an additional 15bp to bring it to a new low of 0.1%. Alongside this cut, the central bank has announced it will up its holdings of government and corporate debt by £200bn. Initial signs in the bond makrets were positive.

The promises of economic support for economies battered by coronavirus from the UK and US governments have caused their curves to cheapen sharply, driving up borrowing costs.

Eurozone government bond yields jumped higher early on Wednesday morning, unmoved by reports of a potential breakthrough for the issuance of common EU debt instruments. The European Central Bank is suspected to have stepped in to try and control the situation, with spreads to Bunds having moved to their widest points for a year or more.