UK

UK retailer J Sainsbury’s has signed a £3.5bn loan package to back its acquisition of Walmart-owned Asda, with the company raising more debt than the cash component of the deal despite analysts raising concerns about the borrower’s recent debt levels.

BNP Paribas said on Thursday that it had hired Paul Hollingsworth as UK economist.

Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust raised gross proceeds of approximately £45.6m ($60m) in a fixed price IPO in London this week, less than half the fund set out to raise.

Richard Gathercole has been appointed as a director in high yield sales at NatWest Markets, the capital markets division of Royal Bank of Scotland, where he has had several roles in speculative grade and distressed debt since 2007.

Tritax has raised £300m through a fixed price IPO in order to create a new real estate investment trust focused on logistics property in continental Europe.

UK Reit Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (SREIT) has refinanced £149.6m of loan debt, cutting fixed interest costs and stretching out duration as the firm looks to mitigate interest rate risk.

JP Morgan has started credit default swap clearing with London-based clearing house LCH, opening a line with a Nordic pension fund.

Canaccord Genuity has hired Graeme Summers in its UK and Europe capital markets business as head of UK regions, to boost its corporate advisory and broking franchise in the north of England and Scotland.

The City's various lobby groups should be pushing the UK government to pick one of the real, off-the-shelf options on offer from the EU for Brexit, rather than indulging its fantasies of a bespoke deal.

The UK’s International Public Partnerships has amended and extended its £400m bank facility, keeping the sterling loan market going at full pace after it recorded its busiest quarter in five years at the end of June.

French alternative asset manager Tikehau Capital has hired Lorcan Kinsella for its loan trading team, as it expands its leveraged debt business.

Société Générale on Tuesday announced that it had agreed to buy Commerzbank’s equity markets and commodities business (EMC), including market-making flow and products trading as well as exchange-traded fund (ETF) subsidiary ComStage.