UK

Swedish bank SEB has appointed a new head of large corporate coverage in the UK, luring a managing director from Santander.

Like many corporate bond market participants Bluebay Asset Management has been keeping a close eye on the volatility that has been and likely will be further caused by emerging markets, political events in Italy and the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

Phoenix Group Holdings is set to sell tier two bonds with a rare bullet format on its first outing in the euro market, as supply of insurance debt heats up in the region.

Santander UK needed to offer an unusually attractive concession for its second euro covered bond deal of the year, but priced its first sterling Sonia-linked deal in line with Lloyds.

UK legal finance firm Vannin Capital plans to go public in the autumn, having filed an intention to float document in London on Monday.

The deal flow of high yield bonds kept rising in euros and sterling this week. Four new issuers joined the already heavy pipeline, including a euro bond from UK premium car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover.

Gas asset and infrastructure investment consortium Quadgas made its debut in the sterling corporate bond market on Monday with a £350m 11 year offering. The company had previously raised funds from the US private placement market, but this was its first benchmark public deal.

Sterling leveraged loan volumes are on the rise, even as sterling high yield bond volumes have been heavily curtailed, said Marlborough Partners this week.

The UK’s RPC Group is in talks with two private equity firms for a potential sale, with the plastics packaging company’s pre-acquisition leverage well below covenant breaching levels.

Merian Chrysalis Investment Co, a new Guernsey-based investment fund backed by Old Mutual Global Investors, is preparing to raise £200m to finance the creation of an investment portfolio of stakes in unlisted companies.

Asset Value Investors, the UK money manager, is seeking to raise £100m to £200m of capital in an initial public offering in London, to invest in a small portfolio of Japanese stocks and agitate for them to distribute cash to shareholders.

UK property company Grosvenor Britain & Ireland placed three private placements with six different investors this week, two of which were new to the credit. Some of the funds will go towards the firm's plans to help ease the UK's housing shortage.