UK

The Bank of England has been dragged back into the mire of Libor-rigging investigations, after the BBC found tapes of Barclays traders referring to "pressure from the UK government and Bank of England" to keep their submissions low. The witch-hunt is already well under way but, if the Bank exerted pressure, it was the right thing to do.

The UK's National Health Service is engaging in exploratory discussions in a drive to raise capital from private sources to finance “much needed” capital developments at a time when officials say it does not expect to receive additional government funding.

French finance minister Michel Sapin has warned British officials that London will lose its euro denominated derivatives business after leaving the European Union, saying that the bloc must be “masters” on rules that apply to its currency.

Nationwide Building Society got a “better than expected” result for a €750m fixed rate six year senior unsecured deal which it issued on Monday.

Shares in Hollywood Bowl, the largest ten pin bowling lane operator in the UK, dropped 3.3% on Friday morning after Electra Partners, the private equity group, sold the remainder of its stake through an accelerated bookbuild.

Rating: Aa2

Yorkshire Building Society defied concerns around the UK’s decision to leave the European Union this week, issuing a well oversubscribed covered bond that was very broadly distributed and that priced almost flat to its curve.

Shares in Tullow Oil, the Anglo-Irish oil and gas drilling company, closed 5.5% higher on Thursday on an adjusted basis, after they began trading ex-rights before its £607m rights issue.

The University of Southampton made its debut in the bond markets this week, printing a £300m April 2057 trade amid a torrent of investor questions over the impact of Brexit on the UK’s education sector.

The heads of funding at DNB Boligkreditt and Royal Bank of Canada told delegates at this week’s IMN conference that investors are well protected from a potential fall in house prices. UK covered bonds are similarly resilient, said a director at Fitch Ratings. And even in a hard Brexit, the privileged position of covered bonds would be upheld by UK courts, said a partner at Clifford Chance.

Laird, the UK maker of mobile phone parts, microchips and antennas, has finished its £185m rights issue to bolster its balance sheet after a fall in profits last year.

Euronext spurned the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) on Monday by completing a preliminary agreement with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Clear Netherlands that will provide the European exchange's clearing services in commodity and financial derivatives for the next 10 years.