UK

Phoenix Group has set the terms on its £950m capital raising to fund its proposed acquisition of the UK and European businesses of Standard Life Assurance from Standard Life Aberdeen.

BC Partners has completed the first selldown of shares in Sabre Insurance, the UK specialist insurer, since its £287m flotation on the London Stock Exchange in December.

The London-Shanghai Stock Connect appears to be finally taking shape after several years in the making. But with the dollar beating the renminbi and the pound to become the link’s major trading and settlement currency, the scheme looks increasingly skewed towards investors in the US rather than those in the UK and Europe.

Old Mutual plc, the South African insurance and wealth management group, has launched the London listing of Quilter, formerly Old Mutual Wealth Management, one of the final stages of the “managed separation” that will split its business in four.

Shop Direct’s sterling high yield bonds dropped this week as investors balked at cash distributions being made to the company’s shareholders, David and Frederick Barclay. The brothers did not comment on the company’s dividends in a statement on Friday.

Investment manager Tritax is considering launching a new real estate investment trust focused on logistics property in continental Europe, to capitalise on the success of Tritax Big Box Reit, the UK-focused fund that launched in 2013 and is now a FTSE 250 company.

Shares in Capita, the UK outsourcing company, rose 3.2% on Friday after it concluded its £702m rights issue, intended to put the company on a sound financial footing after a series of profit warnings over the past year.

Provident Financial issued a £250m five year senior bond that traded sharply higher in secondary after its launch on Wednesday, leaving market participants at odds about the pricing of the deal.

The covered bond market enjoyed one of its most active weeks this year, with as many as eight transactions launched, even as other markets struggled. However, while most issues were well received, the two longest dated deals dragged and showed investor concerns over duration.

Vodafone was welcomed with open arms in the US as it printed the biggest dollar bond in its history, executing a quick fire acquisition financing.

Accountancy and audit firms overestimated their brand value when it came to M&A advisory, writes David Rothnie.

While the euro market was in disarray, Santander UK turned to dollars on Wednesday to achieve a minimal new issue concession. The deal makes this month the busiest ever for UK financial firms in the dollar market, according to Dealogic data.