UK

After a three day blitz of new issues in the investment grade euro corporate market, the sterling and Eurodollar markets stepped up on Thursday as euro issuance eased off from the pace of previous days. Investors had four benchmark and two sub-benchmark deals to consider.

Leveraged loan issuance is set to outpace sales of new high yield bonds with a surge this year, pushed by a varied array of borrowers seeking not just tighter margins on old debt, such as US chemical group Angus this week, but also funding for acquisitions, as with Nordic travel operator Etraveli.

Amid all of the hand-wringing about the advent of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive on January 3, there are some firms which are set to be clear winners, and welcome the start of the controversial regulation.

If the only benchmark euro deal on Thursday had been true to its roots, it would have built a waiting list rather than an order book. But demand still far outstripped supply when Italian luxury sports car manufacturer Ferrari sold its second corporate bond issue.

Principality Building Society has picked banks to arrange a roadshow for a new sterling-denominated senior unsecured bond, marking the issuer’s first visit to the market in any currency since before the financial crisis.

M7 Multi-Let Reit has cut its London IPO in half and extended the subscription period by more than two weeks, having failed to find enough demand so far.

Quite often after a busy couple of days the corporate bond market pauses for breath. Not this week. Six new issues on Wednesday took the deal count for the week to 14, with little discernible effect on spreads.

Manchester Airport Group announced itself in the sterling corporate bond market with two deals in two months in 2014. It returned to the market on Wednesday with a print tighter than its two better known rivals.

There are now only a handful of live IPOs left in the market from this season’s crop, after several deals have been pulled. HelloFresh, EN+, SMCP and Aedas Homes have all traded badly in the aftermarket and just one new deal has been launched this week.

The UK Debt Management Office has broken its record book size yet again and brought in a new high of 144 investors with a deal that leads called a “rousing success”.

Aviva Investors, the UK asset manager, is creating a new real estate investment trust (Reit) focused on long-lease commercial property.

A credit index trader at Société Générale in London, Gamal Selvarajah, has left the bank, GlobalCapital can confirm.