UK

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has acquired roughly 16% of collateral manager AcadiaSoft in an attempt to improve its offering in the non-cleared derivatives margin and processing business.

The UK’s Porterbrook has signed £885m in bank financing from a syndicate of 11 lenders, with Moody’s giving the rolling stock company’s senior debt a Baa2 rating.

A report by Rabobank on Monday highlighted concerns over the feasibility of central clearing for pension funds, saying that the institutions faced more liquidity risks as European rules are phased in.

Shares in Quilter, the UK asset management arm of Old Mutual, performed well in the aftermarket on Monday after its £239m London IPO.

The UK’s Synthomer plans to raise €600m through a revolving credit facility and privately placed notes, as the unrated chemicals company looks to refinance existing bank debt early.

Quilter, Old Mutual’s UK asset management subsidiary, has priced its IPO. The last guidance was that orders below 145p risked missing the deal. At that level, the deal would come two thirds of the way up its original range.

The University of Cambridge returned to the sterling corporate bond market nearly six years after its debut corporate bond with the first private sector UK inflation-linked bond referencing the consumer price index rather than the retail price index. On the same day, British Telecom also issued inflation-linked bonds to its own pension fund using CPI rather than RPI. Nigel Owen reports.

The sterling bond market was alive with bank issuance ahead of a Bank of England meeting this week, with Metro Bank testing investor appetite with a debut, unrated tier two deal.

The market for equity block trades in EMEA has lost some of its shine, with volumes down on last year, and a string of failed trades. This poor performance is in stark contrast to a resurgent IPO market, which in the last two weeks has generated strong returns for investors.

Clients of bank index platforms are adapting to a new investment climate, increasingly opting for more defensive strategies and specifically positioning for volatility spikes similar to the ones markets experienced in early February.

Bayer’s €5bn four-tranche corporate bond offering on Tuesday not only cleared the way for other issuers to approach the market, but the €22.5bn of demand gave four issuers the confidence to sell a variety of deals in Europe on Wednesday. €3.5bn was issued in the euro market and £1bn in sterling.

UK financial services advocacy group TheCityUK on Wednesday called for the continuity of cross-border derivatives contracts to be guaranteed after the UK leaves the EU.