UK

Cardiff University broke the two week silence in Europe's investment grade corporate bond market with a £300m deal on Monday that achieved the lowest coupon ever for a public benchmark bond by a UK university.

Ascential, the information and events business formerly known as Top Right Group and Emap, has got its London IPO covered.

Royal Bank of Canada has made two senior hires in its London credit business as it looks to expand in financials and high yield trading.

Gilt investors have suggested that syndications form part of the UK Debt Management’s main issuance programme, rather than being used as a supplement — but bankers are cautious about such a move, despite the extra fees it would bring in.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank Group was due to close the book for its IPO at 2pm on Monday, having put out a final message to inform investors that orders below 180p a share risked missing out. At that level, the deal size would be £397.5m.

Abbey National's €1bn five year issued Monday was comfortably oversubscribed but exhibited some price sensitivity.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank Group, the UK mid-sized bank being spun off by National Australia Bank, has tightened the price range of its London initial public offering to the low end.

Société Générale has become the latest big name bank to pull back from a government’s bond business, after it resigned as a Gilt-edged market maker for the UK Debt Management Office on Friday.

Principality Building Society priced its Friary No.3 prime UK RMBS deal, landing £475m in what one banker called a ‘tricky’ market. As with sterling covered bonds, the RMBS primary market also seems to be pricing at successively wider levels.

UK Asset Resolution, the UK government’s holding company that has owned the mortgage book of Bradford and Bingley (B&B) since its nationalisation in September 2008, has announced a tender offer and early redemption of the issuer’s covered bonds.

The retail sale of Lloyds Bank shares will be delayed, rather than held this spring as planned, UK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne said today.

UBS has asked Markit to administer and calculate its investible indices, as the bank looks to meet Europe’s regulatory push to improve transparency and oversight of industry benchmarks.