Informa, the UK publishing and events business, has said it is considering paying back its private debt placements and issuing bonds instead. Companies tend to avoid early repayment in the PP market because of the cost of makewhole payments, but several market sources said Informa was trying to extricate itself from financial covenants.
Realty Income, the US Reit, visited the sterling market for a long 10 year bond on Wednesday, and deal-hungry investors piled in.
Banks may be using their lending relationships with companies to press them into granting them bond mandates, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions has warned. This follows the UK Financial Conduct Authority's remarks about similar pressure for equity mandates in April.
Avinor, the Norwegian airport and air navigation services operator, has hired banks for a €500m no-grow bond issue, in the latest test of investor appetite for the heavily battered aviation sector.
Medtronic, the US medical devices company, has mandated banks for a multi-tranche euro bond at a time when European investors are demanding higher spread concessions from Reverse Yankee borrowers than local issuers.
The recent high profile spurt of sustainability-linked bonds, including deals from Brazil’s Suzano, Switzerland’s Novartis and, coming this week, France’s Chanel, is a sharp change, after this structure — where the coupons are linked to sustainability performance targets — has made a surprisingly quiet and disappointing start to life.
Barings is partnering up with Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, to provide $3.5bn of direct lending to mid-market companies in Europe.
Goldman Sachs has given new titles to leaders in its credit finance, investment grade capital markets and equity capital markets businesses.
Chanel, the French luxury brand, is meeting investors over the next two days to market a sustainability-linked bond, the first from its sector and from an unrated company. The deal comes as the European Central Bank has changed a policy that had slowed the market's development.
Series 34 of the iTraxx Europe Crossover index saw seven fallen angels join the index, following the three added in March’s roll, as the coronavirus pandemic pressures sectors such as autos, transport and retail.
Bain Capital has hired a new global head of ESG with extensive experience of oil and gas investments.
Goldman Sachs has named new global M&A bosses, with the incumbents moving to become chairs of the business.
Fresenius, the German healthcare company, pushed ahead with a €1bn dual tranche no-grow trade on Monday, despite an issuer in another sector pulling its deal as wider markets plummeted.
If the London Stock Exchange Group and Euronext strike a deal over Borsa Italiana, a major player in European government bond trading will change hands. Euronext may turn to bond and equity markets to finance the acquisition.
German hospital operator Asklepios Kliniken launched a Schuldschein on Monday, with an initial target of €200m. Investors have doubled down on their interest in pharmaceutical firms this year and throughout the pandemic, prompting a substantial increase in the market's exposure to the sector.
Green and sustainable finance is going through tumultuous change, as it crashes into the mainstream of capital markets, said speakers at the GlobalCapital Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Forum last week. They emphasised the importance of tying financing to credible transition plans.
The release of thousands of leaked documents over the weekend that implicated major banks in money laundering and sanctions violations has sent a shudder through capital markets. Lenders say they will likely increase due diligence to make sure they are not exposed to further revelations.
Rolls-Royce, the UK maker of aircraft engines, has confirmed that it is examining the possibility of a £2.5bn equity raising, but buy-side sources were struggling to make the investment case for the company, given the uncertainty over its future. The stock fell 10% on Monday on the announcement as well as general fears that the UK might be about to reintroduce lockdown restrictions to curb Covid-19 cases.
Ericsson, the Swedish telecoms infrastructure manufacturer, has agreed to buy US connectivity company Cradlepoint for $1.1bn using cash on hand, as corporate bankers say cash-rich companies are less inclined to visit debt markets to fund acquisitions after months of frantic debt raising.
Spanish telecoms group MasMovil is preparing a €720m bond, the second part of the financing for its take-private by Cinven, KKR and Providence Private Equity. Most of the €2.9bn financing came through a loan issue, allocated in July, with the bonds readied following shareholder acceptance for the offer last week.
Agora, the end-to-end debt capital markets platform being developed by bond market veteran Charlie Berman, has closed a second funding round with support from new investors including David E. Rutter, the founder and chief executive of R3, the company behind the Corda blockchain system on which Agora will operate.
Country Garden Holdings Co saw its dollar bond prices spike on Friday following a ratings upgrade from Moody’s — a move that is set to allow the property developer expand its investor base and lower its funding costs.
Global investment firm Pimco has hired a new portfolio manager and managing director, who will serve as head of private credit in Europe. With this hire, Pimco is looking to bolster its special situations business in Europe.
Workspace, the FTSE 250 real estate investment trust, has launched US private placements, according to market sources.
Beijing Enterprises Holdings took €500m from its maiden green bond on Thursday, helped by support from the bookrunners on the deal.
Instant noodle maker Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp was back with a $500m deal on Thursday after an eight-year hiatus from the dollar bond market.
Bond sales from Chinese issuers continued unabated on Thursday despite heavy supply in the first half of the week, with firms raising a combined $1.1bn from the debt market.
The green bond market was conceived on a simple plan. A new class of green bonds would finance environmental projects, standing out from the grey mass of ordinary bonds.
Sustainability-linked bonds took a full year to get going after Enel, the Italian power and gas company, introduced the structure in September 2019. But they are now gathering pace. This week Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, printed a deal, just a week after Suzano, the Brazilian pulp and paper group, had become the second issuer.
A push towards harmonising data and reporting standards in ESG finance is gaining momentum and is a much-needed move in the development of the market. This was the message from panellists at GlobalCapital’s Sustainable and Responsible Investment Capital Markets Virtual Forum this week.
Large pricing advantages for green bonds are becoming not just common, but normal.
Delta Air Lines raised $6bn this week, joining the September stampede by companies to plug their bank accounts and lock in cheap funding.
Despite the financing that two jumbo acquisitions revealed this week would require, loans bankers fear that with no end to the coronavirus pandemic in sight and entire industries reeling from the fallout of lockdown, their jobs will soon be on the line. Mariam Meskin and Mike Turner report.
Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the pan-African development finance institution, has held investor calls ahead of its first green bond issue that Swiss franc bankers expect to launch next week.
The London Stock Exchange Group has partnered with fintech firm Nivaura for the exchange's new platform, called Flow. LSEG hopes that its adoption of Nivaura’s general-purpose legal mark-up language (GLML) technology will help to establish it as the industry’s automation protocol of choice.
Swedish debt purchaser Intrum sold a tap of its 4.875% 2025 unsecured notes on Wednesday, intending to use the funds to part-pay its revolving credit facility. With a strong backdrop, and plenty of RCF drawings still outstanding, the company increased the deal by €50m during syndication.
RBC Capital Markets’ expansion in European investment banking came in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. A decade on, the coronavirus pandemic has presented it with a very different set of challenges.
Amadeus IT group, the Spanish travel technology company, and German logistics company Kion Group offered corporate bond investors the chance to pick up riskier debt on Thursday, as the demand for higher yielding securities drives large parts of the primary market.
Altice France leapt straight into the market after Friday’s surprise announcement that owner and founder Patrick Drahi would be taking the company private. Research from Federated Hermes shows that the credit spread premium for a private company has dropped to virtually zero for the first time in 20 years.
Dutch DIY group Maxeda launched a refinancing this week which pushed up its rating, after it took out its 2022s with new 2026 bonds, taking any liquidity constraints for the triple-C rated chain firmly off the table. Despite the pandemic, the retailer has been successfully deleveraging, helped by a boom in home improvements during lockdown.
Schuldschein arranging banks have long claimed to be the market's gatekeepers as far as borrowers looking for access are concerned, rejecting lower quality credits to keep the standard high. As the market expanded in recent years and a richer variety of companies borrowed from it, this became a less convincing claim. But as the coronavirus pandemic rocks Europe, Schuldschein bankers say they have declined several requests from companies from risky sectors.
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, one of the world's largest owners of shopping malls, launched a €9bn-plus turnaround plan on Thursday, which includes a €3.5bn rights issue. The aim of is to reduce its leverage to help it withstand the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bank and leasing firm Grenke has seen its share price plummet by more than half over the past two days after becoming the latest target of Viceroy Research, the activist short seller known for its campaigns against Wirecard and Steinhoff. German regulator Bafin has told GlobalCapital it is investigating the situation.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a health and economic disaster — but it also creates opportunities, say responsible investing experts. The new environment means financial players can become more ambitious, socially and environmentally.
Volkswagen, the German car company, became the latest to get the bond market’s motor going on Wednesday, when it brought a dual tranche green trade that was priced well inside fair value.
Swedish debt purchaser Intrum is in the market with a tap of its 4.875% 2025 unsecured notes, issued in July, intending to use the funds to part-pay its revolving credit facility. The starting size of the tap is €200m but the company has €746m outstanding on its RCF so could easily look to increase the deal size if it receives strong demand.
China’s Avic International Holding Corp raised $300m from its bond outing on Tuesday.
Tensions between the US and China dealt a blow to state-owned utility firm China Three Gorges Corp’s $1bn bond outing, which fell short of the lead banks’ pricing expectations.
Gabriel Grego, managing partner and chief investment officer at Quintessential Capital, is known among investors for his devastating critiques of fraudulent companies. A former paratrooper in the Israeli Defence Force, Grego is on what he sees as a moral crusade to sniff out corporate corruption. He is adamant, he tells GlobalCapital, that activist short selling is a force for good in financial markets — and society as a whole.
Banks may be using their lending relationships with companies to press them into granting them bond mandates, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions has warned. This follows the UK Financial Conduct Authority's remarks about similar pressure for equity mandates in April.
Banks may be using their lending relationships with companies to press them into granting them bond mandates, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions has warned. This follows the UK Financial Conduct Authority's remarks about similar pressure for equity mandates in April.
Informa, the UK publishing and events business, has said it is considering paying back its private debt placements and issuing bonds instead. Companies tend to avoid early repayment in the PP market because of the cost of makewhole payments, but several market sources said Informa was trying to extricate itself from financial covenants.
Payment in kind (PIK) notes and preference shares will likely play an increased role in new leveraged buyout structures, as sponsors seek to bridge the gap to ever more stretched equity valuations against a backdrop of depressed earnings.
Europe’s high grade corporate market continued to offer plenty of demand for riskier structures this week, with multiple hybrids again taking up screen space.
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