UK

UK telecoms group Virgin Media will begin marketing a jumbo loan this week, in a market that bankers describe as awash with demand. Many issuers are returning in search of tighter margins as soon as their loan terms allow.

SpareBank 1 Boligkreditt unearthed solid demand for its first covered bond in sterling, managing to price at the tight end of guidance with a comfortably oversubscribed book, despite issuing in the more challenging five year tenor.

Barclays opened books for its first green bond transaction on Monday — a callable senior deal from its holding company — as two more financial institutions said that they would hit the road with new green bond frameworks of their own.

HSBC was looking to sell callable senior bonds in the sterling market on Monday, after its group finance director said recently that the bank would issue new debt ‘opportunistically’ if conditions remained supportive in 2017.

En+ Group, the Russian power and metals company controlled by Oleg Deripaska, began trading in London and Moscow on Friday after the book for its $1.5bn IPO came together at “the last minute,” according to a banker on the deal.

Two firms abandoned their London Stock Exchange IPOs on Friday after investors saw the valuations they were seeking as too aggressive. But Befesa, the Spanish metals recycling company, made a successful debut in Frankfurt, closing 14.2% higher.

Red hot market conditions this autumn may tempt financial institutions into making early inroads into their funding and capital plans for 2018, bankers said this week.

Housing & Care 21, a provider of housing and care services for elderly people in the UK, made a successful corporate bond debut on Wednesday when it sold a £250m 30 year deal that grew its sector’s presence in the sterling market.

Nomura has appointed Hugh Karseras, a former Deutsche banker to their new global chief operating officer role.

The first UK interest rate rise for 10 years, announced on Thursday, may stimulate sterling corporate bond issuers, because the Bank of England’s accompanying statement was even more dovish than expected.

Two Apollo Credit funds and a division of Cerberus Capital Management sold £61m of shares in UK bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral via an accelerated bookbuild run by Morgan Stanley on Wednesday night.

The Bank of England raised its base rate for the first time in more than 10 years on Thursday — but analysts described the move as a “dovish” and “pessimistic” hike. Gilt yields fell following the move, providing a potential boon for a UK Debt Management Office (DMO) syndication next week.