Europe

UK gaming group GVC Holdings has signed a €320m loan package marking its entry into the syndicated loan market in a deal said to have been heavily oversubscribed.

Shares in Cobham, the troubled UK aerospace and marine technology company, closed 13% higher on Thursday after the company unveiled its 2016 results and a turnround plan involving a second £500m rights issue in nine months, to strengthen its balance sheet.

UK pub company Stonegate on Thursday priced a £595m two part high yield bond, comprising fixed and floating rate notes, to extend the comeback of the sterling market this year.

German card payments firm Concardis this week increased the term loan backing Advent International and Bain Capital’s buyout of the firm to €300m, reducing price guidance in the process, in a market still waiting on larger buyouts such as Cerba Healthcare to be syndicated.

The European high yield bond market has rebooted after a February in which US firms dominated sales, with so many local issuers now coming forward that high yield bankers have started worrying that March could be overcrowded if the entire deal pipeline materialises.

Lead managers had to bolster the order book for SpareBank 1 SMN’s new senior deal on Thursday, after competing supply, changing rate hike assumptions and tightening swap spreads made pricing dynamics less compelling for low beta issuers.

ING was more than twice subscribed for a €1.5bn trade from its holding company on Thursday — its first senior bond since confirming it as its resolution entity.

European high yield borrowers returned in force this week after a slow February, but so did issuer-friendly bond terms such as offshore listings and portability clauses. Investors have gone public with their growing fears that covenants are becoming looser.

Slovenia took another step towards refinancing its outstanding dollar debt this week with the conclusion of a $600m tender offer and the sale of a pair of euro-denominated taps.

OP Mortgage Bank issued the first €1bn sized non-German eurozone covered bond in over a month on Thursday and, possibly because of the larger than usual size, took a cautious pricing approach.

Slovakia made an unusually late start to its funding programme on Thursday when it emerged with pricing for a new 20 year euro denominated benchmark.

Spain’s Bankia surprised the FIG market with an extraordinary tier two bond on Thursday, having used the momentum from a whopping €5.25bn order book and a massive rally in its secondary trading levels to price very tightly.