UK

As bitcoin investors reel from losses sustained last year, UK bitcoin exchange group Coinfloor has spun off its futures arm into a new exchange that will be owned by a number of firms and prominent individuals in the cryptocurrency market.

Lloyds Bank issued a £750m three year Sonia linked covered bond on Monday, taking advantage of the steepness of the sterling curve to cut the funding cost. But having issued almost £4bn ($5.1bn) in the last 12 months, demand was much less compelling than Nationwide’s recent Sonia debut.

A number of funds that shorted UK construction and services firm Kier Group have begun to shrink those positions, and the share price has soared since.

The number of IPOs on the London Stock Exchange is likely to remain subdued in 2019 due to a deceleration of global growth and the uncertainty of Brexit, meaning activity is likely going to be pushed back beyond the UK's exit from the European Union in March according to a report by EY.

In this round-up, People’s Bank of China (PBoC) cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 100bp, Shanghai-London Stock Connect likely postponed to late January, and Li Keqiang encourages big commercial banks to support the private sector.

Banks are courting France’s Vinci to grab lending spots on the company’s £2.9bn acquisition of a controlling stake in UK airport Gatwick. A bond issue from Vinci is possible in the first half of this year.

Nationwide raised £1bn of five year covered bond funding on Thursday with its first Sonia-linked trade. It was perfectly timed to take advantage of the UK parliament’s recess and the brief period of political calm that this offered.

The UK’s Ashtead has ramped up the size of its bank facility to $4.1bn, as amend and extend operations continue unabated after the Christmas break.

Europe’s equity capital markets are going to reopen in 2019 against one of the most difficult macroeconomic backdrops in recent memory, after the FTSE 100 suffered its worst yearly fall since the financial crisis last year and most other major equity indices finished 2018 deeply in the red.

Business services and construction firm Kier only managed to secure a 38% take-up of its £264m rights issue after the share price collapsed following aggressive shorting during bookbuilding. That left the bookrunners and sub-underwriters having to subscribe for shares.

London-listed The Renewables Infrastructure Group (Trig) has amended and extended its sterling revolving acquisition facility, cutting the margin and increasing the size.

EMEA IPO volumes are around 19% down from last year in the final week of December. Despite that it is is still the ECM asset class that has best weathered the year's volatility. But in a year of disparate performance, GlobalCapital runs through the best and the worst of the EMEA IPOs in 2018.