UK

The UK’s Debt Management Office sold a £4.75bn tap of its July 2065s on Tuesday as the impending referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union showed no impact on demand.

LCH, the clearing house operator, has made two senior executive appointments.

Numis Securities’ bold block trade in Saga shares on Thursday night has catapulted it into the top 10 in Dealogic’s equity capital markets league table for 2016.

ICAP Securities & Derivatives Exchange (ISDX) has made two appointments to its board.

Covered bonds will help Virgin Money achieve its stated aim of optimising funding costs and extending tenor, especially when taking account of its latest Gosforth RMBS, which gave funding that was both short and more costly compared to covered bonds.

Citi has named a new head of its EMEA FIG investment banking group, hiring Piers Davison, former EMEA head of banks and UK head of FIG at JP Morgan.

The chance of the United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union has been driving sterling option premiums sharply higher, but so far has not affected the price of risk in the euro. That, say strategists, is likely to change.

Shares in Saga, the UK insurance and holidays group for the over-50s, have risen sharply since the biggest ever block trade in the stock — and the last for its private equity owners — which Numis Securities handled alone on April 21.

The European IPO market’s busy spring season received further encouragement this week, when its second and third major deals, for Forterra and Mediawan, were both completed — though Forterra’s was priced at the bottom of the range and edged down in trading.

The UK’s Debt Management Office is to sell an additional £2.1bn of Gilts for the year to March 2017. The increase comes as the government’s net cash requirement rose by £2.9bn compared with the forecast published in the 2016 budget.

Jaws dropped on equity syndicate desks across London on Thursday evening when Numis Securities, on its own, launched an audacious £688m cleanout block trade in shares of Saga, the UK insurance and holidays group focused on the over-50s.

The UK’s Debt Management Office is to sell an extra £2.1bn of Gilts in the year to March 2017, after the government's net cash requirement rose by £2.9bn compared to the forecast published alongside the country's budget a few weeks ago.