UK

In this round-up, China’s industrial profit growth further declined, Chinese state media has hinted at more peacemaking gestures to the US and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) rejected the Hong Kong bourse’s acquisition offer in a strongly worded letter.

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has emphatically rejected the unsolicited £32bn takeover bid by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEG), with LSEG's board suggesting that the deal has profound flaws.

Rating: Aa2/AA/AA

Two UK airports set to sell US private placements - Market first as Northern Irish housing association seeks US PPs - Kernel set to secure yet another facility, as EBRD continues Ukrainian push - RMB Mauritius secures loan, months after dollar debt transfer

Bank of Montreal and Rothesay Life made use of the quieter political situation in the UK this week to issue in sterling, in the same week issuance paced down in the euro market ahead of the European Central Bank’s meeting.

Pinewood Studios' effort to re-cast itself as a real estate company seemed pure box office to investors, who placed enough orders for a new bond to allow the borrower to up the deal size and still price at the tight end of guidance.

The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) raised £4bn after it reopened its 2054 Gilt this week with market participants signalling their preference for the maturity rather than even longer maturities, said chief executive Robert Stheeman.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s (HKEX) surprise £31.6bn takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is being hailed by some ECM bankers as a complementary acquisition that will bring markets in the east and west closer together. But the political fires raging in London and Hong Kong have put the proposal’s success in serious doubt, write Jonathan Breen and Aidan Gregory.

Bank of Montreal was marketing a senior preferred bond in sterling on Tuesday, one day after Rothesay Life gave FIG investors a chance to put their money in tier two in the same currency. The Canadian issuer started its trade with a 15bp-20bp concession, according to a banker off the deal.

Swedish credit management company Intrum this week completed a €850m issue of new senior notes, pricing at 3% and increasing the size of the offering from the initial €750m. UK-based gambling giant International Game Technology also dipped into the “most issuer-friendly market ever” with €500m bond.

The UK Debt Management (DMO) and European Investment Bank reopened a quiet sterling market on Tuesday with a pair of syndicated taps, which bankers feel will leave issuers and investors "confident" to follow.

Rothesay Life chose a quieter day in UK politics to issue a tier two in the sterling market on Tuesday. It also took advantage of the lack of supply in the currency and the deal was oversubscribed four times its £400m size.