UK

As the last few EMEA IPOs of the year draw to a successful close, bankers are looking to a promising pipeline for the first quarter of next year. The blocks market remains busy, with several big acquisition financing trades.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China opened books for a dual-tranche floating rate dollar bond on Wednesday, to be sold through its London branch.

Regional Reit, the London-listed real estate investment trust focused on commercial property in the UK regions, has raised £50m of equity, despite investor fatigue towards issuance from the sector.

The Children’s Investment Fund, an activist shareholder of the London Stock Exchange, on Monday continued its attack on chairman Donald Brydon over the early departure of former CEO Xavier Rolet.

The £287m IPO of Sabre Insurance, the specialist UK car insurer, is due to be priced at 230p, the middle of the initial 220p to 240p range, valuing the business at £575m.

The sterling bond market was stretched in new directions on Friday when the University of Oxford issued its first bond. It chose a 100 year maturity, much longer than the longest Gilt, and at Aaa is rated higher than the UK government.

Credit Suisse has declared the cost-cutting exercise in its global markets division over as it looks to regain market share in some product areas following its restructuring.

BNP Paribas will join Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citigroup, and Société Générale as a systematic internaliser when MiFID II regulations come into effect in January.

An announcement on Tuesday morning that Oxford University would be meeting UK investors ahead of an ultra-long-dated transaction caused a stir across the corporate bond market this week.

The board of the London Stock Exchange Group will hold a general meeting to decide the future of chairman Donald Brydon as activist investor The Children’s Investment Master Fund (TCI) has refused to retract calls for him to be sacked.

UK distribution company Bunzl and UK logistics property company Tritax Big Box REIT both met with investors in the UK in the first half of this week before launching debut bond deals on Thursday, while Anglian Water Osprey Financing launched a transaction straight after an investor breakfast.

TSB Bank has issued its first covered bond, and a generous starting spread ensured that the deal attracted the highest oversubscription of any sterling covered bond this year.