UK

The retail industry is in deep trouble, especially in the UK, where every other week it seems a storied High Street name tumbles into financial distress. Private equity sponsors, which owned many of the collapsed names, take much of the blame, but they were also victims of structural changes that battered the industry.

Sirius Minerals has launched a bold $3.8bn financing transaction, combining equity, debt and a new loan facility, to fund the development of its Yorkshire potash mine project. JP Morgan, Sirius's corporate broker, is underwriting and organising the deal.

Yorkshire Building Society issued the most popular euro covered bond of any UK bank ever on Tuesday. Scant UK supply, a popular choice of tenor and a rare double digit premium over mid-swaps, amid negative yields, were key in driving demand.

Tottenham Hotspur, the north London football club, is considering selling US private placements to partly pay off bank loans generated by the construction of its new stadium, several market participants have said. Unlike their US equivalents in the NBA and NFL, professional clubs from the UK are a rarity in the market, as the threat of relegation makes them too perilous an investment to some investors. Silas Brown reports.

Yorkshire Building Society has mandated for a five year euro covered bond that will be the second euro benchmark covered bond from a UK bank this year. The deal emerges as investors chasing yield flatten the covered bond curve.

A substantial and growing proportion of asset managers are asking big oil companies to realign their businesses with the Paris Agreement by moving away from fossil fuels, a survey released on Monday has found. But only a few have set deadlines or thought about what to do if the oil companies fail to comply.

In this round-up, numerous agreements were signed on the sidelines of the second Belt and Road Summit, US-China trade negotiations will continue next week and Chinese president Xi Jinping replied to a letter to students from an America high school

Uncertainty around how MiFID II’s trading obligation will function after Brexit is leading UK and European derivatives trading houses to consider executing trades in other jurisdictions.

The US real estate investment trust Reality Income is planning a £300m bond sale to part finance its acquisition of 12 properties in the UK linked to grocer J Sainsbury’s.

John Wood Group, the Scottish oil services company headquartered in Aberdeen, entered the US private placement market late on Wednesday.

Bar chain Loungers priced an £83m IPO on Wednesday, providing a rare boost for UK mid-cap funds who have been bereft of deals because of Brexit.

Finablr, the Abu Dhabi-based cross-border currency and financial technology holding company which owns Travelex, is one of the few firms in the market with a live IPO. But banks are not rushing to set a price range, wanting to give investors more time to value the business.