UK

Every time a UK company gets into trouble, the call goes up for a state rescue — calls which the government, sensibly, usually rejects. With the increasingly troubled Intu, however, it might not be the worst idea.

The UK Debt Management Office hit the market for an auction of a 10 year line on Tuesday, testing the waters at new yield levels and finding demand. However, the short-dated paper scheduled for next week could prove more challenging.

The European Union’s Taxonomy of Sustainable Economic Activities, the latest draft of which was released on Monday, has been hailed by promoters as the opening of a new chapter in responsible investing. But the document is complex and much will depend on how market participants use it.

Credit Suisse is set to move a financial institutions debt syndicate banker from his role in Europe to a position the US in the second quarter of 2020.

Alcentra has provided $530m of senior debt to fund the acquisition of medical device maker Lumenis by Baring Private Equity Asia, in the largest direct lending deal the European private debt specialist has done in its history.

UK electricity distributor Electricity North West, which manages electricity networks in the north west of England, has started marketing US private placements. However sources are worried the market will not cope with pricing transactions amid wild swings in Treasury yields.

Transition bonds, one of the hottest talking points of the past year in the green bond market, made a decisive step forward this week when Cadent Gas, the UK’s largest gas distributor, issued a €500m deal that attracted large orders from environmentally concerned investors, even though some green bond funds shunned it. Jon Hay reports.

Shares in guarantor loans company Amigo Holdings plunged more than 25% at the open on Thursday while its high yield bond, a 7.625% 2024, was marked down more than 30 points, as founder James Benamor quit the board, then published a lengthy blog post describing the company as "committing slow motion suicide". Amigo hit back quickly with a statement rejecting many of Benamor’s comments but prices failed to bounce back.

Capita raised £719m of equity in May 2018 via a deal that was billed as the path to securing its financial future after a difficult period for the outsourcing sector. However, the firm has now conceded that the amount raised was not enough to offset its decline in revenues.

Lancashire County Council raised £350m ($453.5m) of five year cash on Thursday through the UK Municipal Bonds Agency platform. It is the first local authority to do so since the MBA was set up.

British American Tobacco is considering switching its existing revolving credit facility from Libor to Sonia, following Royal Dutch Shell’s trail-blazing Sofr-linked syndicated loan last year. The move would demonstrate a more galvanised move away from Libor in the loan market.

Cadent Gas launched what by some counts is only the second transition bond on Wednesday and achieved a stellar reception in the market. The €500m no-grow bond was priced without a new issue concession and tightened sharply on the break, according to a banker on the deal.