UK

Ocado, the UK online grocer, has made its first foray into the equity-linked market with a £600m convertible bond due in 2025 to finance investment in its technology platform Ocado Solutions, which produces robotic warehouses for foreign partners.

The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) has announced the timing of the fifth and final syndication of its financial year.

Barclays offered investors a rare chance to add exposure to its senior debt in euros on Monday, helping to fill a supply gap from UK issuers in this currency.

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) published a report on Thursday making the case for institutional investment into UK social housing. The sector has come under pressure from falls in government funding and the increasing costs of developing new homes. Capital from the insurance sector could provide a valve, PIC claims.

Private equity firm Silver Lake acquired a 10% stake in City Football Group (CFG), the holding company that owns Manchester City FC, for $500m on Wednesday. The deal has been greeted as a watershed in the way football clubs are financed and is tipped to spark copycat deals.

It is with much sadness that GlobalCapital reports the death of David Pepper, Bank of America’s head of loan capital markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Virgin Money revealed in a presentation on Thursday that its cost of funding had risen by 31bp in the last year, as the UK lender looks to replace central bank money with financing from the capital markets.

Senior managers and former employees of Future plc, one of the best performing companies on the London stockmarket, have sold £43.7m of stock in the company, via an accelerated bookbuild.

Key Schuldschein arrangers that have long felt uncomfortable with floors at 0% for fixed and floating rate notes are gearing up to bring more borrowers to market with a Euribor floor set below zero in the new year.

Bank of Nova Scotia returned to the sterling market for the first time in more than a year on Wednesday, when it sold its first total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) compliant senior bonds in the currency a day after reporting its full year results.

Chinese power company SDIC Power Holdings is moving forward with its plan to list global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange to fund global expansion and its clean energy drive.

Akuo Energy, a French renewable energy producer, has sold €45m of green Euro Private Placements (Euro PP), as the sustainable element in the market grows.