UK

The Public Works Loans Board has given investment banks and asset managers the Christmas present they have been praying for for years. By hiking the cost of loans to local authorities, it will force them into private capital markets. Big mistake.

Austrian cellulose fibre maker Lenzing has entered the Schuldschein market with margins tied to its sustainability performance.

Yet another tortuous delay to the UK’s departure from the European Union means yet more angst for the country’s equity capital markets, which have already suffered a slump in deals this year due to the political and economic uncertainty of Brexit.

Soha Housing has sold a £40m private placement in a bilateral transaction.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress European sovereigns have made in their funding programmes as we approach the end of October.

A UK government body providing cheap debt to local authorities increases its lending margins, so in step nimble institutional investors to capture a slice of a new asset class. It sounds poetically simple. The reality will be more prosaic.

The UK Treasury’s decision to raise the cost of borrowing for local authorities has caused quite a stir in private placement markets, as players realise institutional investors are prepared to offer debt at more attractive rates than the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB). But the more adventurous local authorities may find capital markets a tougher pitch to play on, writes Silas Brown.

Prosus gets JP Morgan loan for £4.9bn Just Eat order - GoCo switches to bigger loan deal - Schroders adds ESG targets to revolver - AerCap secures revolving debt until 2024 - Nottingham set to be third UK university to sell US PP notes this year

The University of Nottingham is looking to sell US private placements, according to market sources, becoming the third UK university to enter the private debt market this year.

Bain Capital-backed market research business Kantar showed this week that investors still have some bite in the high yield market. Buyers forced the issuer to flex numerous covenants, tinker with the tranches, delay the issue and consent to unusually juicy coupons. The deal may not be a sign of things to come, however, as Crown waltzed through its bond launch, setting a new low coupon record for a fixed rate bond.

Investec has hired two analysts to join its industrials equity research team in London.

A group of shareholders in M&G have sold £117m ($150.3m) of stock in the company, following its demerger from its former parent Prudential, via an accelerated bookbuild.