UK

Woodford Investment Management, the asset manager run by Neil Woodford, has sold the last of its stake in IP Group, the investment company focused on the commercialisation of university-developed intellectual property.

Just Group is set to become the third insurance company in a week to buy back some of its subordinated bonds with a view to replacing them with new securities in the market. But CreditSights have cautioned against taking a 'speculative' position in the company's new bonds, which arrived with price thoughts above 8% on Thursday.

Shanghai-based China Pacific Insurance Co (CPIC) has received the green light from its board to list in the UK using the London-Shanghai Stock Connect, becoming only the second Mainland company to do so.

UK tour operator Thomas Cook’s default could come close to annihilating the bondholders’ positions, leaving them only with a few cents on the euro, the liquidation analysis shows. The 178-year-old company tried feverishly to secure a £1.1bn rescue package over the weekend but collapsed on Monday.

Kaspi.kz, the largest payments company in Kazakhstan, announced on Monday that it would proceed with an IPO on the London stock exchange after filing a registration document last week.

Metro Bank had to cancel its plans to sell its debut non-preferred senior bond on Monday as investors focused on the risks overhanging its business. The UK challenger bank's inability to access the market, despite offering a 7.5% coupon, raises important questions ahead of a looming deadline for it to meet the minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL).

SMBC has made two additions to its London desk for syndication origination in structured finance.

A £285m block in Trainline, the UK the transport booking website, was covered quickly on Thursday night after a lock-up was waived on KKR and other pre-IPO shareholders.

The private equity consortium behind the $3.4bn leveraged buyout of UK satellite company Inmarsat is testing the limits of investor patience with exceptionally aggressive terms for $1.125bn of senior notes, potentially leading the high yield market down a slippery slope.

It has been an explosive week in the sterling market, with foreign and domestic names raising £2.9bn of debt on the back of £13.05bn of combined demand in the space of just three days. But there are more big tests for sterling funders in near future, with a bond market comeback for the UK’s Metro Bank being chief among them.

Sirius Minerals, the company that is building a giant fertiliser mine beneath the UK's North York Moors, faces up to six months of uncertainty after it failed to issue a $500m high yield bond that would have secured its financial future, and the UK government refused to provide support to the project. Karoliina Liimatainen and Aidan Gregory report.

Lloyds Bank, Virgin Money and Skipton Building Society took advantage of an improvement in market conditions since the European Central Bank’s policy meeting, and the UK Parliament’s efforts to legislate against leaving Europe without a deal, to issue a string of successful covered bonds this week.