UK

Virgin Atlantic is reportedly preparing an IPO on the London Stock Exchange, raising the prospect of a major airline flotation at a time when the industry is still facing severe headwinds due to the pandemic.

Banks are seeing light at the end of the tunnel as they emerge from major cost cutting exercises at the same time as economies around the world begin to emerge, erratically, from pandemic restrictions. Now the question is whether there will be enough capital markets business to go around.

A rare block trade has broken the quiet in Europe’s equity capital markets, as a former director of Dr Martens, the boot maker, sold a chunk of shares in the first block sale since its IPO in January.

RBC Capital Markets has hired Citi's former head of structured credit sales EMEA, John Miles, to lead its recently established alternatives and private capital solutions (APCS) group.

City Electrical Factors, a UK electrical wholesale network, has agreed on a £150m five-year secured credit facility. Wells Fargo served as sole lender, as the bank looks to expand its loan book in Europe.

Despite high inflation readings, the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee voted to keep up its purchases of UK government bonds at its meeting on Thursday. The MPC did offer some guidance on when the central bank will begin to reduce its stock of assets.

Liberum has hired Nicholas How from Peel Hunt to oversee its support services and industrials investment banking team, which includes two other new faces.

MUFG is implementing a new hybrid work policy in EMEA that enshrines flexible working patterns that were introduced during the pandemic.

NatWest Group said on Friday that the “reshaping” of its investment banking arm, NatWest Markets, would be largely complete by the end of the year, after it moved a further 500 staff out of NWM in the second quarter.

The Bank of England will hold a key monetary policy meeting on Thursday, where market participants hope to glean some insights on how the Bank will react to the UK’s surging rate of inflation.

The Bankers Investment Trust, a London-listed investment trust which traces its origins back to 1888, has sold a £74.5m-equivalent private placement. While there are slim pickings for PP investors looking to lend to financial institutions in Europe, investment trusts have provided a steady stream of opportunities.

The UK’s Municipal Bonds Agency is not going anywhere. Despite a late 2020 curve ball in the form of a 100bp cut to the UK’s Public Works Loan Board lending rate, which undermined the MBA's ability to raise competitive bond market funding on behalf of local councils, the agency has a pipeline of deals coming together, some of which will carry ESG labels for the first time.