UK

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.

Network Homes is looking for US private placements, according to several market sources. The London housing association is the first of its type to return to the market after a string of prospective PPs were suspended during the initial peak of the pandemic crisis. Sources expect these postponed deals to return shortly.

GIC, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, sold 115m shares in medical product and technologies company ConvaTec on Monday night following a huge rally in the stock price.

The wave of accelerated capital raisings in the UK in response to the Covid-19 crisis has caused consternation in some circles because retail investors cannot access to these deals. While the principle of shareholder equality is without doubt a noble one, in reality larger shareholders have always had more access to equity capital markets deals than retail investors have.

The UK Debt Management Office launched its first syndication of the new financial year on Tuesday, smashing all previous records for deal and order book size and making a healthy start on the sovereign’s largest ever borrowing programme in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Diversified Gas and Oil, the London-listed US oil and gas firm, has raised £69.4m of equity to help fund a package of potential acquisitions, taking advantage of continued low global oil and gas prices.

Equity bankers expect to be busy with more capital raising in the next few weeks as UK corporates prepare for a prolonged period of business interruption after the government laid out plans for a slower reopening of the economy than many had hoped for.

The merger of the UK’s largest mobile phone operator, O2, with cable company Virgin Media, agreed on Thursday, will generate a £6bn financing need which the parties want to complete before the deal closes, expected to be in 2021 — and later on, it could lead to an IPO, say sources close to the deal.

Costain Group, the London-listed construction and engineering firm, has completed the first leg of a heavily discounted £100m capital increase that it originally announced in March following poor 2019 results.

The Bank of England said on Thursday that it would be changing the way it looks at Pillar 2 capital targets, giving UK lenders more room to breathe during the coronavirus pandemic.