UK

Barclays’s former New York head of FX trading, Robert Bogucki, was charged this week with allegedly “front-running” a £6bn options trade to be executed by technology company Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

Dwr Cymru Welsh Water reopened the investment grade sterling corporate bond market on Wednesday with a £300m bond that came bang in the middle of the maturity range marketed during the issuer's roadshow.

Europe’s equity capital markets saw the launch of the first big rights issue of the year on Wednesday when Cineworld Group, one of the biggest cinema chains in the UK, confirmed it would raise £1.7bn to partly finance its takeover of Regal Entertainment, the US cinema operator.

Property developer Country Garden Holdings is planning a return to the Panda bond market on Friday, after approaching onshore investors with a Rmb1.8bn ($279.8m) three year bond. It will be the first time the company has sold a Panda in the interbank bond market.

Carillion filed for compulsory liquidation on Monday, prompting floods of columnists to rush to display their hours-old knowledge of the UK outsourcing sector and denounce the firm’s borrowing strategy. But what the case proves is that each collapsing company is unhappy in its own way.

Tom Muoio, head of European leverage finance capital markets at Jefferies, who was appointed six years ago, will be leaving the bank, as former HSBC leveraged finance director Bala Ramesh joins the team.

Clayton Dubilier & Rice seized the opportunity to sell the last of its shares in B&M European Value Retail, the UK discount retailer, last Friday, after the company posted strong Christmas results.

MUFG has appointed Holly Villiers to a new role heading corporate banking for UK, Ireland and the Nordic countries.

The sterling corporate bond market had a very strong year in 2017. So it is somewhat surprising, especially given the strength of the euro corporate bond market, that the scorecard in the sterling market remains blank. However, there have been signs of life with a pair of roadshows announced this week.

The MiFID II requirement for banks to justify allocation decisions on equity capital markets (ECM) deals could encourage investors to make reverse enquiries to lead managers, write Sam Kerr and Aidan Gregory.

UK property website operator Zoopla announced the first deal of 2018 in the European high yield market this week, a sub-benchmark sized bond in sterling.

Westpac attracted substantial demand for its five year sterling floating rate deal on Thursday, with considerable investor liquidity ensuring a particularly attractive cost of funding.