UK

Aviva was met with strong demand for a tender offer this week, prompting the firm to buy back £200m more bonds than expected and increase the size of its debt reduction targets.

The UK Debt Management Office has published its Gilt operations calendar for the first quarter of its 2021/22 financial year.

One big crisis should be enough for anyone's career. But Sir Robert Stheeman, chief executive of the UK's Debt Management Office, has had to face two monumental financial catastrophes in the last 13 years — first the 2008 UK banking crisis and then last year's pandemic.

European banks will exercise extreme caution in dollars after an ill-fated senior deal from Swedbank this week. It could signal the end of a long run of ultra-easy borrowing conditions in US credit markets, with severe volatility stemming from fears of rising interest rates. Tyler Davies reports.

Helios Towers, the Africa-focused telecoms infrastructure company, has sold a new $250m convertible bond to finance its pipeline of tower assets.

In one of the first pieces of public research on the nascent direct lending asset class in Europe, a report from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School has found that it could grow assets under management by as much as 50% in the medium term, owing to banks retreating from the mid-market and investors looking for higher yields from credit.

The Restaurant Group, the owner of numerous UK dining brands including Wagamama and Frankie & Benny’s, launched a £175m equity raising on Wednesday to see it through to the end of the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown.

Swedbank got stuck at initial price thoughts for a $750m three year preferred senior bond in the dollar market this week, having been forced to drop a longer dated leg from its offering.

Gilt-Edged Market Makers (GEMMs) and investors expressed their support for the UK Debt Management Office to issue a new 30 year Gilt as the first syndication of its new 2021/22 financial year.

European equity deals linked to renewable energy have continued to come to market despite sustained turbulence buffeting the sector.

Intesa Sanpaolo saved a couple of basis points with the sale of a new senior bond from its green issuance framework on Tuesday, compared to fair value on a conventional deal. The new issue came as markets remained on edge ahead of the European Central Bank’s next meeting.

Tesco, the UK supermarket chain, has reacted quickly by setting new targets to sell healthier food, less than a month after a group of shareholders filed a resolution calling for this — a sign of how sensitive companies are to having environmental, social and governance motions voted on at their annual general meetings.