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UOB prices 1 billion in EUR-denominated dual-tranche covered bond

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SINGAPORE, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — UOB has priced a EUR1 billion dual-tranche covered bond transaction comprising EUR500 million 2-year fixed-rate covered bonds at EUR mid-swap (MS) plus 7 basis points (bps) and EUR500 million 5-year fixed-rate covered bonds at MS plus 24bps.

This marks UOB’s first EUR covered bond issuance of 2026 and the first dual-tranche EUR covered bond offering by an Asian issuer. The transaction also included the first 2-year EUR covered bond issuance from an Asia-Pacific issuer since 2023. The transaction was met with exceptionally strong investor demand, with peak combined order books exceeding EUR4.25 billion within four hours of launch and closing at approximately EUR3.9 billion, representing more than approximately 4x oversubscription.

By offering both 2-year and 5-year tenors, UOB was able to capture demand from a broad range of investors, including bank treasuries, central banks, official institutions and asset managers, while achieving cost-effective funding and optimising maturity management for the Bank.

The strength and quality of investor demand enabled UOB to tighten pricing significantly from initial guidance, with the 2-year tranche repriced by 8 bps and the 5-year tranche by 6 bps. 

The 2-year tranche also priced approximately 5 bps inside comparable Singapore secondary market levels. The transaction achieved a weighted average maturity of 3.5 years, allowing UOB to secure attractive funding costs while locking in historically tight funding spreads.

Ms Koh Chin Chin, Head of Group Treasury, Research and Customer Advocacy, UOB, said, “The strong demand for our Singapore Covered Bonds reinforces Singapore’s standing in global capital markets. Following the success of our recent GBP issuance, our latest EUR covered bond also attracted robust investor interest, reflecting confidence in UOB. The dual-tranche structure allowed us to cater to diverse investor preferences while delivering an efficient funding outcome.”

Salient points about this offering

First Asian issuer to execute a dual-tranche EUR covered bond transaction. The 2-year tranche was deliberately positioned to capture investor preference for shorter maturities in the current market environment, attracting demand from bank treasuries, central banks and official institutions, while the 5-year tranche appealed to traditional real money investors. Demand peaked at more than EUR4.25 billion, reflecting strong support from high-quality institutional investors.Further strengthened UOB’s position in the European covered bond market and reinforced its diversified funding platform.New issue premium was estimated to be negative 1-2 bps for the 2Y tranche and 0bps for the 5Y based on recent comparable primary deals; with the 2Y, 5bps inside secondary levels of Singapore peers.

Distribution Statistics

Final orderbook: Total ~3.9bn (2Y: 2.0bn; 5Y: 1.9bn)2Y: Bank treasury: 56%; Asset managers: 20%; Central banks/ Official institutions: 12%; Others: 12%5Y: Asset managers: 41%; Central banks/ Official institutions: 26%; Bank treasury: 23%; Others: 10%

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Britons favour nuclear over solar and wind as future energy source, new poll suggests, commissioned by Eland Cables

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LONDON, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — New YouGov research commissioned by Eland Cables suggests Britons widely support renewable energy but remain unconvinced it can deliver affordable, reliable power on its own.

Nuclear is the UK’s preferred future electricity source, with 21% of Britons thinking it should be prioritised, ahead of solar (19%) and offshore wind (18%).47% support nuclear power stations, although support falls to 38% when developments are proposed locally.51% doubt renewables will provide affordable energy costs and 51% doubt they will generate enough power to meet UK demand. 

The research found that almost two-thirds of Brits (64%) feel positive about renewable energy, while only 12% feel negative. Meanwhile, 44% believe the UK’s transition towards renewable energy is happening too slowly, compared with just 18% who think it is moving too quickly.

However, despite strong support for renewables in principle, many respondents expressed concerns about whether the technology can meet the country’s long-term energy needs. Half of respondents (51%) do not believe renewables will provide affordable energy costs over the next decade, while the same proportion doubt renewables will generate enough electricity to meet future UK demand.

The research also found significant support for nuclear power as part of the UK’s future energy mix. When asked which electricity source the UK should prioritise, nuclear ranked first at 21%. National support for nuclear power stations stood at 47%, although support fell to 38% when developments were proposed locally.

The findings suggest that while renewable energy has secured broad public backing, attention is increasingly turning to reliability, affordability and energy security. 

Jean-Sébastien Pelland, Executive Director at Eland Cables, said: “The public is no longer asking whether renewable energy should be deployed. The bigger question is whether the benefits are being felt yet. While support is high, there is still uncertainty around issues such as energy costs, security of supply and future demand. As renewables become a larger part of our energy system, the focus naturally moves beyond generation alone to the wider infrastructure required to deliver the reliability and resilience people expect.”

For deeper insight into the trends, attitudes and concerns shaping the UK’s energy transition, access the full press release here and the report here.

Notes: Figures are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size:2,142 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken 9-10 July 2026. Figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (18+).

Media contact
Samantha Williams, PR Manager, Eland Cables
swilliams@elandcables.com | +44 (0)20 7241 8747

Eland Cables is a leading supplier of electrical cables to industry, driving growth in sustainable infrastructure across Europe and beyond. From renewables to railways and e-mobility to data centres, its products play a vital role in electrification and decarbonisation. Headquartered in London, the company combines technical expertise with a commitment to quality and innovation, supported by The Cable Lab® – an accredited testing facility recognised globally for impartial assessments and technical excellence. 

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Ph fintech Mynt scales GStocks into country’s largest online retail platform for local stock market

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MANILA, Philippines, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Beyond powering frictionless digital payments in areas like public transportation, online and offline cashless purchases, and peer-to-peer transfers, Mynt, the parent company of the Philippines’ number one finance super app GCash, is also expanding access to investing through its wealthtech platform.

GStocks PH currently serves over 2 million Filipinos through broker AB Capital Securities Inc., accounting for over 50% of all online retail stock market accounts with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), reinforcing GCash as the Philippines’ largest online retail platform for investing in local stocks.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) recorded 3.64 million stock market accounts, according to its 2025 Stock Market Investor Profile report. The report found that 99.2%, or 3.61 million accounts, belong to retail investors, of which 3.22 million accounts are held online through digital platforms and e-wallets. The same report also found online retail accounts grew 30.5% YoY.

“This rapid growth reflects a broader shift toward digital platforms that lower barriers to participation. With simple signup and paperless registration that eliminates the need to physically visit a bank or brokerage, GCash enables more Filipinos to invest via GStocks, GFunds, GBonds, and more in-app,” said Winsley Bangit, Group Head of New Businesses at Mynt.

Beyond stock investing, GCash has also become a leading platform for investment funds, with 8.8 million registered GFunds users and as much as 4 in 5 unit investment trust funds (UITF) in the Philippines conducted through GFunds via partners ATRAM, BPI-IMI, and Manulife IM as of 2025.

GCash is accelerating its momentum in the country’s retail investment space with innovations like GStocks, which enables seamless access to stock investments, and Pera Coach, its AI-powered wealth coach that provides on-demand financial guidance in-app. It is also preparing for the anticipated sandbox introduction of GStocks Global with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission, which will give more Filipinos access to US-listed stocks.

GCash continues to pioneer efforts to help everyday e-wallet users transition into more capable, confident investors. For more information, visit www.gcash.com.

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SOURCE GCash

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Tencent Games Central Tech Makes Its gamescom Debut, Accelerating Game Industry Innovation with Full-Pipeline Proprietary AI Technologies

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COLOGNE, Germany, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Games Central Tech recently made its gamescom debut as a unified brand. Together with Motus AI, GIGA, MagicDawn, ACE, GVoice and WeTest, it presented a proprietary technology portfolio covering game content production, gameplay experiences and long-term live operations at gamescom dev and gamescom.

The showcase highlighted Tencent Games’ continued exploration of how AI can become part of real-world development workflows and create sustained value across industrial-scale production, complex interaction and long-term operations.

This approach was also reflected in four technical sessions for game developers worldwide: “Breathing Life into Geometry 2.0: Advancing the Unified AI Pipeline for 3D Character Animation,” “Building Autonomous AI Agents for FPS Battlefields,” “Lighting Up Roco Kingdom: Best Practices for High-Performance Global Illumination,” and “From Scripts to AI Agents: Scalable Autonomous Testing for Complex Games.” Together, the sessions and on-site demonstrations showed an industry shift from evaluating individual tools to developing technologies that can integrate into workflows and become stable, reusable production capabilities.

Motus focuses on the intelligent creation of digital characters and represents this shift from isolated capabilities to an integrated production system. Powered by Tencent Games’ proprietary family of generative animation foundation models, it connects the character animation pipeline through AI-native capabilities including rigging, intelligent skinning, motion generation, motion refinement and real-time character interaction. Its technologies have been deployed across multiple games.

Beyond content production, Tencent Games GIGA treats games and virtual worlds as research environments for general-purpose agents. Through general visual decision-making, language-action alignment and real-time competitive decision-making, GIGA is advancing foundation models from “understanding context” to “taking action in dynamic environments.”

These intelligent characters and agents also require virtual worlds that are convincing and stable. Built on advanced rendering technologies and integrated with AI and cloud computing, MagicDawn addresses performance optimization, high-fidelity visual presentation and immersive audio. At gamescom, MagicDawn used Roco Kingdom as a case study to show how global illumination and cross-platform adaptation helped transform a classic browser game into a 64-square-kilometer, cross-platform open-world game while maintaining consistent visual quality.

As game content and interactions become more complex, long-term fairness, communication and quality assurance are equally essential. Anti-Cheat Expert (ACE) showcased mobile and PC game security capabilities covering anti-cheat protection, game and client hardening, in-game economic risk management and game threat intelligence. GVoice provides low-latency, highly reliable voice communication through AI noise reduction, a proprietary AI codec and real-time speech translation. WeTest Acorn AI Studio enables AI agents to experience games like real players and identify issues like testing specialists, supporting multiple genres and platforms.

Together, these capabilities represent Tencent Games Central Tech’s technology portfolio for the full game lifecycle. Rooted in long-term development and operational experience, they are evolving from point solutions into infrastructure that can integrate with workflows, support production and enable long-term operations. Building on the same project-validated foundation, Tencent Games Central Tech is also continuing its work in emerging areas including world models and real-time interactive video, while working with developers and industry partners worldwide to explore the next generation of game experiences.

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