HSBC

UK electronics components distributor Premier Farnell has completed a £250m amendment and extension of its loan facility, after refinancing its US private placement in August.

Asian insurers are making their presence felt in the international debt market after Korean Reinsurance (Korean Re) became the fourth name to issue a bond in six weeks. While market participants are quick to point out that the deals are unrelated, they predict more is coming from the sector as Asia makes the step up to Solvency II, write Virginia Furness and Rev Hui.

German ball bearing producer Schaeffler has priced its €1.77bn-equivalent term loan ‘B’ at the wide end of its guidance range, in response to weak demand from the US market.

A portion of Tata Steel’s $5.6bn borrowing, which has been in senior syndication since July, finally launched into general on October 13, with five banks joining the original 11 leads. The money will be used to refinance the outstanding portion of the debt Tata took to fund its acquisition of Europe’s Corus Group.

Chinese clean energy firm ENN Energy Holdings managed to tap the offshore market for $400m on October 15, even though volatile markets meant joint global co-ordinators HSBC and UBS were only able to gather a modest order book.

Chilean power company E-CL will decide on Thursday morning whether to announce its planned dollar bond issuance, after a remarkable bout of volatility on Wednesday disturbed fixed income markets.

United Internet, the German internet services provider, closed the €1.35bn loan for its acquisition of Versatel on Wednesday and left the path open for a Schuldschein transaction for banks that did not make it into the syndication.

On an extraordinary day in the capital markets, a very ordinary corporate bond was issued on Wednesday — a €500m 8.5 year issue for Snam, the Italian gas transport group, that was nicely oversubscribed and closed trading at reoffer.

A cacophony of troublesome macro conditions are rocking the markets and could make issuance exceptionally tricky for issuers looking to print dollars in the coming weeks. A pair of borrowers felt the pain on Wednesday, with their leads setting pricing in line with initial price thoughts and at least one of the deals undersubscribed — a far cry from a series of blow-out dollar trades since the market reopened after the summer.

UK pharmaceuticals group Amdipharm Mercury has set out price guidance on its £984m refinancing and recapitalisation loan, which will raise its net leverage ratio from 3.4 to 5.5 times.

The UK’s debut offshore renminbi bond — the first from a non-Chinese sovereign — was almost twice subscribed despite being larger than expected. The deal marks the largest new issue from an international sovereign, supranational or agency in offshore renminbi.

German ball bearing producer Schaeffler will close books on its €1.8bn-equivalent term loan ‘B’ today. Early signs are that investors have received the familiar credit enthusiastically.