UK

It was no surprise to many market participants that Friday saw no new issuance in the corporate bond market after the busiest week of 2018. The conundrum to be solved now though is how the jumbo issuance will affect conditions in potentially the final full week before Easter.

UK media company WPP sold a dual tranche bond this week, following its own recent trend for issuing shorter tenors with its most recent euro issues.

The preference share market is in disarray after Aviva asserted that it could cancel its instruments at par, a decision that has been derided by fixed income investors of all stripes and is now being examined by UK market regulators. Tyler Davies reports.

The day after a jumbo corporate bond issue is often a quiet one for new issuance as investors digest their allocations and assess the impact on secondary spreads. But after Sanofi's €8bn offering on Wednesday, Thursday was another bumper day.

Lloyds issued its first euro covered bond in almost two years on Thursday, helping to assuage Brexit concerns by pricing the €1bn seven year with a positive spread to mid-swaps.

A top US derivatives regulator on Wednesday went into battle against his European counterparts over their new proposal that will increase the stringency of the EU’s oversight of foreign clearing houses.

Tullow Oil, the group based in London that has most of its operations in Africa, was on course to print its new high yield bond in the 7% area this week. It was attracting interest from pension funds in need of assets with high returns, according to sources.

The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) is forecasting £102.9bn ($143.4bn) of Gilt issuance in 2018/19, a fall of £12.2bn from this financial year, which ends on March 31. But the share of funding to be syndicated is steady — despite some investors over the last few months calling for a reduction in the volume of syndications.

After a reasonable wait, investors are starting to see the more frequent investment grade corporate bond issuers return to the market. On Tuesday, French materials company Saint-Gobain and French telecoms operator Orange sold benchmark deals and UK media company WPP sold a dual-tranche issue.

The European Commission has warned the UK that special tax rules for commodity derivatives in the country might be in violation of European Union treaties.

JP Morgan has hired Paul Wheeler to join its oil and gas ECM business in EMEA.

Second tier English football club Norwich City has announced plans to sell a mini-bond to build a new academy to help it develop the club’s younger players. The retail bond features an unusual kicker based on the club’s success and will use a platform co-founded by former Chelsea player and manager Gianluca Vialli.