UK

UK fashion retailer New Look saw its bonds trade down after poor quarterly results this week just as fears mount of a downturn for the sector. That has left high yield investors divided about the implications for issuance from New Look's peers.

Cruise.co.uk, a UK online travel agent, is buying German peer Kreuzfahrtberater in a deal that brings together the direct lending arms of private equity firms Bridgepoint and Permira.

British American Tobacco is expected to bring the week-long run without any new corporate bond issuance to an end later this week. The UK based tobacco company could issue in dollars, euros and sterling.

Shares in Triple Point Social Housing, the real estate investment trust focused on UK social housing assets, closed 2% higher on Tuesday after the company finished its £200m IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

Anglian Water’s £250m eight year green bond was the only corporate new issue that priced this week. If there is to be any issuance next week, it is expected to be in sterling.

LendInvest, a UK short term property loan platform, issued a £50m five year bond this week, taking new listings on London Stock Exchange’s Order book for Retail Bonds (ORB) to more than 2016s total — its first year-on-year growth since 2012.

The ongoing recovery of Royal Bank of Scotland, the UK banking group, took a step closer to completion on Friday when unveiled a profit in the first half of the year, aided by a sharp increase in profit from its investment banking division NatWest Markets.

The shake-up of equity research provision expected to be caused by MiFID 2 could open up more space for new business models — including research paid for by the issuers, writes Jon Hay.

Gilt yields dropped on Thursday after the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 6-2 to hold the Bank Rate at 0.25% — a higher majority than the 5-3 in favour of holding at its last meeting in June. The more dovish result came after weeks of hawkish noises emanating from the central bank. Meanwhile, the Province of Alberta returned to the sterling market to tap its debut issue from earlier this year.

With the Bank of England’s Term Funding Scheme (TFS) coming to an end, UK financial institutions could look to increase their presence in the sterling bond market.

Rating: Ba2/B+/BB+

Gilt yields dropped on Thursday after the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 6-2 to hold the Bank Rate at 0.25% — a higher majority than the 5-3 in favour of holding at its last meeting in June. The more dovish result came after weeks of hawkish noises emanating from the central bank.