UK

The two 100 year corporate bonds previously sold in the sterling market had received excellent responses and, when London-based charity the Wellcome Trust became the latest member of the century club this week, it proved that investors' demand for ultra long bonds is far from satisfied.

The chief strategy officer of Eurex Clearing, Matthias Graulich, has dismissed claims that euro interest rate swap clearing costs would increase substantially if moved to the EU 27 from London, noting that liquidity indicators for the product are already improving at Eurex.

The Wellcome Trust charity is a fine institution. The medical research it has funded will benefit the world for many years. This week it helped fund that work by selling a £750m 100 year bond. The investors who bought it probably have a warm glow inside knowing they have helped the cause. But is it responsible to buy bonds that will redeem in 2118?

Audley Group, the UK builder of luxury retirement villages, has signed a £125m revolving credit line as it follows up a 2017 equity raising as part of an “aggressive growth strategy”.

The big fall in the share price of UK outsourcer Capita on Wednesday led to fears of another large corporate collapse in the sector following Carillion's demise last month. But market sources saw the rights issue and turnaround plans, which caused the dip, as a way to avoid disaster as peer Serco once did with similar tactics.

The round of redundancies at Barclays Investment Bank has hit more senior figures, including the head of EMEA leveraged finance, a vice-chairman in ECM, the COO of EMEA banking, as well as other managing directors across the origination businesses.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank is set to open its newly authorised UK branch for business next week, with initial plans for wholesale banking and vanilla securities trading.

France is hoping to add its name to a growing list of sovereigns in China’s Panda bond market, having discussed the possibility with at least two of the country’s biggest state-owned banks.

Capita, the UK outsourcing services firm which runs London's congestion charge system, has laid out an ambitious turnaround plan including a £700m rights issue, but the stock plummeted as its profits projections fell short of expectations.

Endeavour Mining, the Toronto-listed, UK-headquartered gold exploration company active in west Africa, has raised $300m to refinance debt with a debut five year convertible bond issue that was well subscribed, according to several sources close to the deal.

The London Stock Exchange’s Order book for Retail Bonds (ORB) opened the year with a $180m issue from Burford Capital, the litigation finance firm.

The two previous 100 year corporate bonds sold in the sterling market had received excellent responses and on Wednesday London-based charity the Wellcome Trust joined the century club, proving that investors' demand for ultra long bonds is far from satisfied.