UK

Hiddensee, a new research provider, is aiming to take advantage of MiFID II’s unbundling requirements by giving analysts a platform to work independently and allowing investors to pay for specific researchers or reports.

UK capital markets issuers and investors who want to do deals need to prepare to ignore Brexit and come to market. There is no sense in waiting for political calm — the European election result shows it simply is not going to come.

Sellers of the IPO of Trainline, the UK transport booking website, are confident that the listing is a strong enough prospect to withstand any political pressures affecting the UK, including a Labour government intent on nationalising the country’s railways.

Tritax Eurobox, the UK real estate investment trust focused on continental European logistical properties, has completed its latest €135m growth capital raise, despite a tough equity market backdrop.

Shares in Serco, the UK outsourcing company, rose more than 8% on Thursday morning after the company announced a £130m growth capital raise to finance the takeover of Alion’s naval design and systems engineering business, a leading supplier of services to the US armed forces.

Société Générale has moved one of its London bankers to Hong Kong to take over as head of the Asia Pacific debt capital markets syndicate team.

CME Group’s fixed income electronic trading platforms business is launching a dealer-to-client Request for Quote (RFQ) trading product for the European repo market.

Nationwide Building Society priced the tightest UK covered bond this year on Wednesday and still managed to issue in a good size. The deal was well timed to take advantage of recent spread tightening with little hint of investor hesitation, even though Brexit concerns are set to mount.

Trainline, the UK transport booking website, is preparing to launch an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. The deal is expected to value the company at around £1.5bn, according to a source close to matter.

UK retailer Marks & Spencer has set the terms on its fully underwritten £601m rights issue with shareholders already understood to be supportive of the deal, despite the risk hanging over the UK.

Lloyds is yet to confirm whether it will redeem an outstanding additional tier one (AT1) deal, callable on June 27, just as banking authorities have increased the pressure on financial institutions to justify their decisions to call such debt.

Investors are calling on the UK to issue green bonds. Should it? There is little doubt markets would like them — but the important question is, would the public?