UK

There are only eleven votes between the top three contenders for GlobalCapital’s 2019 Covered Bond Issuer of the Year award: Lloyds, Toronto Dominion and Royal Bank of Canada. These banks have issued a number notable covered bonds in euros, dollars and sterling, which are summarised in the following article.

Equity capital markets bankers were glancing at a sea of red across global equities on Monday, but they were grateful that volatility has only flared up during a traditionally quiet period for new issuance.

In an otherwise barren summer week for equity block trades in Europe, UBS led the sale on Thursday night of R1.4bn ($95.4m) of stock in Mondi, the Anglo-South African paper and packaging company, on behalf of a group of shareholders left out of a recent reorganisation of Mondi’s listing.

Capital market participants with an interest in UK social housing are paying close attention to new UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s appointments to his cabinet and inner circle, to try to gain a sense of his attitude towards housing.

Refinitiv bondholders will likely not receive the full sum of the make-whole premiums that apply to the bonds if London Stock Exchange Group refinances all of them before their call date. An equity claw clause will allow Refinitiv to refinance 40% of the bonds at a cheaper rate.

The new UK government’s cavalier approach to Brexit has had a brutal impact on the value of sterling, making it less likely that UK banks will want to pay back the principal on some of their foreign currency additional tier ones (AT1s), writes Tyler Davies.

Sibanthracite to switch loan from dollars to euros — IGT cuts size, stretches tenor of bank debt — Keywords hits power up on revolver — Resolute turns to lenders to refi M&A debt — Future taps revolver for Smartbrief buy — Fraport enters the Schuldschein market for more

Aston Martin’s £79m loss in the first half of 2019 drove its shares down to £4.98 by Wednesday’s close — a huge 73.8% fall from its £19 IPO price last October, making it one of the worst performing UK IPOs of the past decade.

Barclays said on Thursday that it will redeem three of its additional tier one (AT1) bonds in September, though a weaker pound means that paying the debt back will eat into its common equity tier one ratio.

Equity Capital Markets bankers are considering the possibility of bringing selected block trades to market in this week and next, in order to avoid what could be a volatile market in September.

GlobalCapital's latest information on forthcoming and planned corporate bond issues in the European market.

Property group Savills has employed two experienced loan syndication bankers to enhance its newly formed debt advisory business.