UK

London football club Tottenham Hotspur FC has sold £525m of US private placements, according to sources familiar with the situation, to pay off bank loans which funded the construction of its new stadium.

Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund Ltd, the London-listed investment fund that specialises in private debt and infrastructure bonds, is preparing to raise £146m to take advantage of a growing pipeline of investment opportunities, despite the political volatility in the UK.

Barclays' head of private capital markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa has decided to leave the bank.

The UK Debt Management Office on Friday announced the syndicate that will run its forthcoming tap of the 2054 Gilt, as well as its plans for a further Gilt syndication to be held during the third quarter of 2019.

Existing shareholders were shown no mercy as Thomas Cook’s creditors and Chinese conglomerate Fosun reached an initial £900m agreement to recapitalise the company and divide up the assets. The creditors get most of the healthier airline business, while Fosun takes the bulk of the declining package holiday business.

Lenders unconcerned as recession portents mount — Booking Holdings gets global group for revolver — Pemberton raises €3.2bn more for Europe’s mid-market — Eurotorg re-enters rouble debt market

Alteri Investors, backed by Apollo Global Management, is launching a second investment vehicle focused on the European retail sector, as it sees opportunities to invest in that troubled industry.

US toymaker Hasbro is to take up on $3.6bn new debt to buy media company Entertainment One, acquiring porcine superstar Peppa Pig, among other brands, if rival bidders don’t scupper the deal. Hasbro may choose to pay a make-whole price to Entertainment One’s bondholders, who bought the company's issue less than three months ago, a research company predicts.

The UK Debt Management Office has announced that it is planning to reopen its 2054 Gilt through syndication in the week beginning September 9.

Asset manager Pemberton has raised €3.2bn for a direct lending fund focusing on Europe’s mid-market. This is a few months after it raised €1bn for another European direct lending platform, Strategic Credit Opportunities Strategy (SCOS), which has higher expectations on returns.

Agents active in private debt markets in the UK are growing increasingly frustrated by a crop of advisory firms muscling in on their market share, often arranging deals without the need an investment bank. Some bankers allege that advisory firms don’t have the capacity to price deals effectively, and also that some do not have appropriate regulatory cover from the US regulators to pitch investors there legally.

The UK was over two and half times covered for a tender of long end Gilt on Thursday.