Lloyds Bank

Shell, the oil and gas major, visited the sterling bond market for the first time for around six years on Thursday, printing £1bn of long maturity debt and creating a curve out to 2052.

Virgin Money UK tested the strength of the sterling market this week by looking to raise tier two debt. The UK lender was able to tighten pricing by 50bp and print inside fair value, and the new trade accompanied a tender offer of the issuer’s old securities.

The UK Debt Management Office has chosen the banks to lead the first ever 15 year Gilt to be sold via syndication, which will hit the market next week

ABN Amro has become the 18th bank to call an additional tier one (AT1) in 2020, as refinancing conditions continue to improve, despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lloyds has bought back a small amount of sterling covered bonds on a bi-lateral basis. Most investors that wanted to hand back bonds will have already done so in its previous public tender offer.

Platform Housing Group, a UK social housing firm, got chunky demand from the sterling market on Wednesday, with the borrower benefitting from a dearth of deals in the currency.

Platform Housing Group, a UK social housing company, has mandated for a long term sterling benchmark trade, with the company borrowing as it takes on a major development plan.

Lok'nStore, the UK self-storage company, has activated a clause on its £75m revolving credit facility to extend the deal by another year, as UK loans bankers say there has been a flurry of smaller sterling deals in recent weeks.

Coventry Building Society (CBS) is racing to price Economic Master Issuer 2020–1, with the help of arrangers HSBC and Lloyds, to meet the huge demand for the deal, which is a hybrid between a master trust structure and a standalone RMBS — the first of its kind. The transaction, set to herald the next step in master issuer structures, is an innovation which could open the door to more financial institutions committing to long-term RMBS programmes, writes Tom Brown.

Fitch played down fears about the impact of payment holidays on UK covered bond pools this week, arguing that high credit quality would offer a strong line of defence against defaults.

UK home emergency and repair company Homeserve has entered the US private placement market, according to sources, looking for at least £125m.

Lloyds Banking Group has appointed Centerview’s Robin Budenberg as its next chair, while chief executive António Horta-Osório is set to leave the firm next year.