UK

Just Group, the UK life insurance firm, said on Monday that it was looking to sell a rare tier three bond in the sterling market.

The UK government has left stakeholders completely in the dark over its plans for financial services after Brexit leading to calls from some EU politicians that the City try to bypass the stalled government talks and offer a payment for access to the bloc.

China and the UK have still not announced the launch date of the London-Shanghai Stock Connect, but international investors are already positioning themselves to get the most out of the new link, Gary O’Brien, a senior custody banker at BNP Paribas, told GlobalRMB.

The first issue of 2018 on London Stock Exchange’s Order book for Retail Bonds (ORB) is set to be a dollar offering from Burford Capital, the litigation finance firm.

Sterling issuance was thin this week relative to its scorching start to the year although there was still room for Kommunalbanken to print its largest ever deal in the currency. Strong supply is on the way from the UK Debt Management Office but while demand is as good as some bankers have ever seen, other deals may be limited by technical factors.

Shares in Dechra Pharmaceuticals, the UK veterinary pharmaceuticals company, closed 8.7% higher on Thursday after the company raised £105m of new capital to partly finance its acquisitions of AST Farma and Le Vet in the Netherlands.

Two influential derivatives trade bodies have questioned elements of a European Commission proposal that would centralise supervisory powers with pan-European securities watchdog ESMA, arguing that national supervisors have a “strong knowledge of local markets” and that the move seemed “premature”.

Chinese property developer Country Garden Holdings was forced to pull a Rmb1.8bn ($281.2m) three year Panda bond this week after investors demanded a better return amid rising volatility, writes Noah Sin.

An ex-SSA DCM banker has joined the UK's Financial Conduct Authority to focus on wholesale banking supervision.

KKR launched an accelerated bookbuild on Wednesday to sell its remaining stake in Pets at Home, the UK retailer. The trade priced at 174p, a 5.9% discount.

Former Citi credit trader James Duffy will be joining HSBC in London to trade financials single name credit default swaps.

Jason Manske, the chief hedging officer and head of global derivatives and liquid markets at insurance giant MetLife, has joined the International Swaps and Derivatives Association's board of directors.