Deutsche Bank

Siemens Audiology Solutions, the hearing aid business of Siemens, closed the final part of its acquisition debt package with great success late last Friday (December 12), allocating the €785m leveraged loan on the same day as the deadline for commitments.

BAIC Motor has raised HK$11.04bn ($1.42bn) after pricing its IPO — one of the last billion-dollar listings for Hong Kong in 2014 — just above the midpoint of guidance.

Swedish power company Vattenfall has signed a €2bn five year revolving credit facility with 15 banks, with strong support from its banking syndicate.

French investment company Wendel issued a €200m tap of its October 2024 bond on Wednesday, and has reduced the amount of its revolving credit facilities.

Insurance capital is finding unexpected favour even as most other European debt markets are stopped in their tracks. With insurers rushing to take in fresh subordinated debt ahead of new EU regulations next month, and investors increasingly receptive to higher yielding instruments from a less volatile sector than banks, more than €2.3bn ($2.85bn) of deals emerged this week. And as Nathan Collins and Graham Bippart report, more could emerge in the coming days.

Hearing aid maker Siemens Audiology Solutions this week priced a €275m high yield bond, as part of the financing package for its buyout from Siemens by EQT Partners.

GTech, the Italian gambling equipment maker, has further reduced its bridge facility for the acquisition of US competitor International Game Technology, down to $6bn.

La Mondiale became the third insurer to sell perpetual sub debt this week on Thursday, hitting its minimum spread target for a non-call 11 year deal despite choppy market conditions.

Two Chinese borrowers are in the market with Taiwan targeted loans. China Food Packaging and Phoenix Healthcare Group have recently launched borrowings, seeking a total of around $250m between them, said bankers away from the deals.

The Hong Kong IPO market was off to a busy week, with Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties and Linekong Interactive rushing to complete chunky deals before the markets break for Christmas. But the flood of activity also left one victim in its wake, as M800 chose to delay bookbuilding until January rather than compete with its rivals for investor attention.

India’s divestment plan is off to a good start, with the government offloading a 5% stake in Steel Authority of India (Sail) on December 5 to raise around Rp17.15bn ($277m) in a day-long trade that was well received by institutional and retail investors.

South Africa’s Standard Bank has signed a $700m three year term loan, while Nigeria headquartered Africa Finance Corporation looks set to close general syndication of its $300m deal by Friday.