UK

Lloyds Development Capital, the private equity division of Lloyds Bank, has completed the first selldown of shares in Team17, the UK games developer, since its IPO on the London Stock Exchange in May last year.

CVC sold a £271m chunk of its stake in Avast, the London-listed Czech cyber security company, on Tuesday evening but the stock traded below issue price throughout the day on Wednesday.

Retailer Sports Direct has offered to buy Debenhams for around £61.4m in cash, though the companies disagree on whether Mike Ashley’s firm will be able to deal with the department store’s immediate debt servicing requirements.

The IPOs of two payments companies being marketed in Europe have moved ahead in the past 48 hours. Italian firm Nexi has set a price range, while Dubai-based Network International has attracted Mastercard as a cornerstone investor. Equity investors are now assessing whether to pay high multiples for future growth.

Find out how far European sovereigns have progressed in their 2019 plans as the first quarter draws to a close.

Equity bankers expected clarity about Brexit by this week, for better or worse, and had hoped to start work again on UK IPO projects. But further delays and political uncertainty have swept these deals back to the sidelines.

Virgin Money sold its debut covered bond on Friday. The deal was well subscribed but it attracted much less demand than two earlier Sonia-linked trades this week, reflecting weakening sentiment among investors.

SSA sterling issuance was muted this week, with only the Inter-American Development Bank bringing a small deal, as the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met.

Technical support for the sterling bond market still remained strong, investors said this week, as the UK’s Debt Management Office starts to shape up its multi-billion sterling issuance schedule.

Skipton Building Society took advantage of a strong credit market and brief hiatus in the quickly evolving and politically chaotic backdrop to Brexit to issue a £600m five year Sonia linked covered bond. The deal was more heavily subscribed and attracted a broader range of investors than any of its previous deals, yet was priced with little or no new issue premium.

Skipton Building Society has mandated leads for its first Sonia-linked covered bond. The issuer follows National Westminster Bank and takes advantage of an improvement in sentiment that followed a UK Parliament vote last week.

Investors and market makers have told the UK’s Debt Management Office (DMO) to bring a syndicated bond in May, but there are mixed views on what maturity the issuer should target.