UK

The Bank of England’s annual €2bn three year dollar issue was comfortably oversubscribed on Monday, but the smaller volume of orders compared with last year and lack of price movement reflected both the greater difficulty in printing short dated deals and investor pushback against super tight swap levels, said bankers. That may have played a role in FMS Wertmanagement’s decision on Monday to mandate for a five year dollar deal, they added.

Phoenix Group, the UK life assurance fund consolidator plans to raise £1.5bn of underwritten debt to part-fund its £3.24bn cash and shares acquisition of Standard Life Aberdeen’s insurance business, in what is likely to be one of the biggest sterling acquisitions this year.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten this week capitalised on movements in short end dollar rates to print its largest trade in nearly two years. It was the solitary dollar benchmark this week, but with the Chinese New Year holidays out of the way and Asian investors back at their desks, bankers expect supply to pick up next week and for the very short end to still be the place to be.

The sterling investor base can be stubborn one not listened to, as Swedish truck and bus manufacturer Scania found to its detriment when it launched its debut deal in the currency this week. Gatwick Airport and London & Quadrant had better receptions.

EasyHotel, the UK budget hotel developer and franchise operator, has raised £50m through an increased share placement to fund the development of new hotels. Its CEO said expansion plans stretched as far as Sri Lanka and Iran.

Unite Group, the UK’s largest developer and manager of student accommodation, has raised £170m in a daytime block trade to fund two new building projects.

After four euro new issues in two days, the sterling market took its chance for a day in the spotlight as two issuers chose to bring new deals while euro borrowers remained on the sidelines. However, despite the recent lack of issuance, investors pushed back on spreads being tightened.

The equity blocks market in EMEA reopened after Presidents Day on Tuesday night with trades in WPP, the UK advertising agency, and Banca Farmafactoring.

PRS Reit, a UK real estate investment trust that builds and owns private rented homes in the UK, has completed a £250m capital raising to invest in UK real estate.

As Europe’s leveraged finance markets return to growth, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has added Apostolos Gkoutzinis and Rebecca Marques as partners to its leveraged finance and capital markets team.

Cineworld, the UK cinema operator, has finished its £1.7bn rights issue to finance its reverse takeover of Regal Entertainment in the US, winning a high take-up from its shareholders.

Temenos, the Swiss banking software company, is in advanced discussions about an all cash offer for Fidessa, the UK trading technology firm, for around £1.4bn, which is likely to involve some debt issuance.