UK

On Thursday, Imperial Brands bucked the recent trend of ethical and sustainable corporate bond issuance, but found plenty of demand for its latest deal. The UK tobacco group had not accessed the bond market for more than two years.

Capital market sentiment in the UK has weakened as the country awaits the detail of its scheduled departure from the EU, if a couple of indicators published this week are anything to go by. However, even a bad Brexit could be welcomed by corporate financiers.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has fined a former fund manager for attempting to influence pricing during an IPO and share placing in 2015.

Theresa May may not have brought any further clarity to the UK’s Brexit agreement, but that is not causing any issues for investors and issuers in the sterling corporate bond market. On Tuesday, two more deals were priced: one from a UK issuer, one from a European.

The UK Debt Management Office showed no effects from the ‘noisy UK environment’ to comfortably conclude its 2018/19 syndicated programme on Tuesday. KfW will add to the sterling SSA supply this week after picking banks for its third benchmark in the currency this year.

The UK’s equity capital markets are facing a difficult year, as companies hold off from share sales due to the uncertainty surrounding the UK’s impending departure from the European Union. The German-speaking region is therefore likely to be the dominant fee pool in Europe this year, while emerging markets will become a still more important source of IPOs on the London Stock Exchange. But Brexit angst is chilling markets even beyond the UK.

Greencoat UK Wind, the UK infrastructure fund focused on wind farm development, has begun the deal roadshow for its latest £131m capital increase.

After National Grid’s 16 year sterling corporate bond deal was more than six times oversubscribed on Tuesday and BMW found huge demand for a €3bn euro deal on Thursday, Volkswagen Financial Services tested the sterling market on Friday and found demand just as strong.

Santander UK paid a modest new issue premium for its second Sonia-linked covered bond and the second five year Sonia linked of 2019.

DWF, the UK law firm, has filed paperwork on an initial public offering in London, but many in equity capital markets are predicting that the the city’s largest deals will come from the emerging markets.

The universities of Aberdeen and Leicester are marketing US private placements (US PP), it is understood, both of which willl be inaugural transactions.

Low & Bonar, the UK maker of fabrics and flooring materials, has announced a £54m placing and open offer to reduce its debt burden in order to satisfy its debt covenants.