UK

Worldpay, the UK payments processing company, on Thursday sold its first bond issue, a €500m deal — in what could be the busiest string of seven trading days since July, with four more deals roadshowing.

Shire, the UK pharmaceutical company, has agreed to acquire US biopharmaceuticals company Dyax for $5.9bn in cash. Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley are arranging financing.

Westpac has mandated leads and opened books for a dollar benchmark covered bond, to be priced on Monday. And in euros, Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) has mandated leads for a €500m no-grow seven year benchmark, to be launched on Tuesday.

A poor third quarter for Commerzbank’s investment banking division and the announced retirement of its chief executive has done little to spoil the bank’s overall sense of momentum, as it posted better profits than had been widely expected and revealed it would pay its first dividend in eight years.

Investec Bank signed its third and fourth syndicated loans of the year last Friday, and held a bank meeting this week for its fifth loan. The bank plans to stick to smaller, more regular loans in a volatile environment for emerging markets.

Western Power Distribution, the UK electricity distribution network operator, kept the sterling corporate bond market’s run of form going on Wednesday with a £500m eight year issue.

As overall credit market liquidity has eroded, total return swaps (TRS) are providing an alternative for market participants to access or hedge their corporate bond exposure, according to financial information services provider Markit.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ has hired two sector-focused managing directors for corporate banking in EMEA.

Barclays delayed announcement of its expected restructuring plan, as it is still in discussion with the regulator, but said that new chief executive Jes Staley would join the bank early, as it announced third quarter results on Thursday.

Western Power Distribution, the UK electricity distribution network operator, kept the sterling corporate bond market’s run of form going on Wednesday with a £500m eight year issue.

Equiniti Group, the UK share registrar and pension administration group, made a disappointing debut on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday (October 27). Its shares fell 8.5%, after being priced at the bottom of their IPO range.

BNP Paribas has hired an experienced financials credit trader to its London operations.