UK

Pension Insurance Corp (PIC) offered a pickup over similar instruments for its debut restricted tier one (RT1) transaction on Thursday. It hopes the deal will help it tap into growth in the UK’s pension risk transfer market.

Ithaca Energy, a UK-based oil and gas operator, revised its bond terms to placate investors this week — marking a rare victory for the buy-side in a market that has offered ever weaker protection. Buyers for the bonds had been prepared to swallow Ithaca's original proposals, but demanded a double digit yield to do so, forcing the borrower to back down to hit its target price. Karoliina Liimatainen reports.

Nationwide Building Society has restructured the swaps underlying its covered bond programme to ensure a proportionate share of the cover pool's mortgage interest will be swapped to Sonia, winning approval from Moody's this week.

Lloyds Bank was able to increase the size of its second dollar covered bond issued on Wednesday — its second deal in this market in the last year. In doing so, it still managed to pay a minimal new issue concession.

Investors have been discounting UK bank bonds in the secondary market in recent weeks, as it becomes increasingly unclear how a change of prime minister will affect the country’s approach to leaving the EU.

Places for People, the UK housing association and property management company, has raised €150m from a privately placed note led by Goldman Sachs.

NatWest Markets, the investment bank owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, has launched its own environmental, social and governance deposit product, responding to a desire among companies, public bodies and investment firms to invest their cash ethically.

Crédit Agricole has nabbed one of HSBC’s former sustainability bond leads to work on its sustainable financing team in Asia.

Muenchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) was set to issue a $600m three year Reg S dollar Pfandbrief on Tuesday, at close to the tightest levels seen this year and with exceptionally strong demand. The stellar outcome encouraged Lloyds Bank to announce a follow-on deal of its own.

Investors in London have been considering the opportunity to invest in Uzbekistan this week, through a new closed-end fund, Oltin, the first internationally listed security giving investors exposure to the Central Asian republic.

The UK's Pension Insurance Corp has bought a £40m bond privately issued by Eildon Housing Association, a Scottish social housing provider.

Pension Insurance Corporation has announced plans to issue its first restricted tier one (RT1) instrument as it looks to fund the growth of its business. Analysts at CreditSights suggest the deal could be priced with a coupon of about 7%.