UK

The first sterling senior unsecured FIG deals to hit the market since the Brexit vote brought in astonishing demand, first for a blockbuster £1bn trade from Wells Fargo, followed by a bond from Bank of America Merrill Lynch that brought total sterling issuance to £1.75bn on the week.

The UK’s largest dental company Mydentist on Thursday launched a £425m bond to refinance all of its debt, becoming the first high yield sterling deal since the country voted to leave the European Union.

Australia and New Zealand Bank has made an appointment to its loan syndications team in London.

Softbank, the Japanese technology and telecoms group, has taken a ¥1tr ($9.5bn) loan for its £24bn acquisition of Arm Holdings, the UK firm which designs mobile phone chips. The loan could be syndicated to non-Japanese banks if the refinancing strategy requires it, said one senior banker.

The sterling denominated FIG market awakened on Tuesday with news of the first deals since the UK’s vote to leave the EU on June 23.

Norwegian gas and oil shipping and storage company Stolt-Nielsen has agreed $325m of new debt arrangements with three of its relationship banks to fund the purchase of Jo Tankers' chemical tanker operations.

Shares in Faroe Petroleum, the British oil and gas exploration firm, have fallen 8% today after the company announced it had completed a £62m capital increase on London’s Aim to finance its acquisition of new production assets in the Norwegian North Sea.

The UK’s insurance industry could be co-opted to help some of the most vulnerable countries on earth, if a plan for foreign aid bonds gets off the ground. The instruments could also help London in its quest to become a centre for catastrophe bonds, a project announced in last year’s UK budget.

International Public Partnerships, the UK investment firm dedicated to financing public infrastructure projects, has completed its £125m capital increase on the London Stock Exchange.

Shares in AA, the UK breakdown assistance operator, fell by as much as 6% on Thursday after Invesco sold its 13% stake via an accelerated bookbuild which began on Wednesday evening.

The proposed merger of the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse looks set to allow Frankfurt to prise euro swaps clearing away from London, amid rising expectations that regulators will require the combined entity to move euro business back within the eurozone.

Big moves in credit, equity and foreign exchange markets this week were magnified by mass unwinding of previously popular trades as investors capitulated to a reversal of fortunes for Japan and European banks.