UK

Macquarie has led a £1.3bn ($1.7bn) secured financing in the direct lending market for the acquisition of a 50% stake in a UK offshore wind farm, the Walney Extension, taking £500m of the issue itself.

Investment boutique Green Ash became the newest player in the corporate high yield market this week, with its short dated speculative grade bond strategy set to include a large allocation to UK credit.

The dim sum market’s recent issuance run is set to continue after Hitachi Capital (UK) priced a three year deal on November 2 – less than two months after the issuer sold a Formosa bond.

NGA UK, the provider of human resources software, launched a €300m loan on Wednesday, which it will be hoping appeals to CLO managers that have been eager for new money deals.

On Monday night, Dmitry Grishin, the Russian entrepreneur, sold a chunk of his stake in Mail.ru Group, the internet services company he co-founded, via an accelerated bookbuild led by Goldman Sachs on the back of reverse enquiries from investors.

Santander UK took home $2.5bn of funding at the holding company and operating company levels at the end of the last week, seizing on attractive conditions in the dollar market to front load some of its 2018 issuance.

October will count as a relatively quiet month for most investment grade corporate bond markets, except sterling, which has already absorbed enough new paper to increase on its average monthly volume, according to Dealogic data.

London based clearing house LCH Group has revealed that John Horkan, the head of its North American operations, will become COO of the company.

Syndicate bankers were quietly confident that the European Central Bank would not surprise with its quantitative easing announcement on Thursday, and they were proven correct. While only RCI Banque used Friday to print a new deal, the market remains in rude health. But public holidays will mean next week’s issuance will be limited too.

Companies planning to float in the UK will no longer be able to meet analysts from banks that want to manage their IPOs, under new rules published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) this week.

Despite a disappointing performance in FICC, Barclays is standing firm on its plans to allocate more balance sheet to the division and continue its run of senior hires in the business.

Greencoat UK Wind, the wind farm operator managed by Greencoat Capital, has raised £340m ($447.59m) to invest in new assets, after a fully marketed share sale on the London Stock Exchange.