Loans and High Yield

Muddy Waters has fostered a fearsome reputation as a credible, thorough and forceful short seller whose explosive reports are a danger to anyone harbouring a stake in its intended target. Carson Block, its founder and chief investment officer, told GlobalCapital he has never been wrong about a company he’s shorted, though that doesn’t mean he’s made money from every position he has held. According to Block, monetary policies intended to stimulate markets through financial crises actually corrode them, and stifle accountability for serious failures in corporate governance.

India’s Mu Sigma, a data analytics firm, has returned to the loan market for an up to $100m deal to refinance its debt.

JP Morgan has started syndication on a refinancing loan for Micro Focus, a deal first marketed at the end of February but pulled in the first week of March, in a further sign that the loan market is healing enough to start clearing the overhang of pre-coronavirus financings.

Chinese pork producer Muyuan Foods has set the ball rolling on its debut $200m offshore loan.

Metals and mining company Vedanta Resources is seeking a bridge loan of $2bn to $2.5bn to take its India-listed subsidiary private.

Bank of the Laos PDR is in talks with banks for a new borrowing, returning to to the offshore loan market after raising two deals last year.

Sweden’s Volvo Car, a car maker, has become the latest company under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic to sign a state-guaranteed loan, as bankers say that state support is essential to secure commercial bank loans for the worst affected sectors.

Two Singaporean companies, GuocoLand and Manulife US Real Estate Investment Trust, raised green loans this week.

Taiwan-listed On-Bright Electronics is seeking a $206m loan to support its take private.

Citi picks Nick Darrant as syndicate head — And it sets up new sustainability and science units — JP Morgan reveals next layer of DCM, ECM and M&A bosses

The new UK insolvency law, introduced into the British parliament on Wednesday, will allow unconsenting creditor classes, including secured creditors, to be crammed down during a restructuring. This could mean bondholders and banks, rather than landlords, take more of the pain in the coming wave of corporate distress. Hotel chain Travelodge is likely to be one of the first major companies to use the new rules.

The slowly reopening European high yield market faced another test on Tuesday, following Sappi’s decision to pull its planned issue at the end of last week. Data centre and cable network firm Cogent raised a B3/B- rated add-on in order to pay a dividend. The company is too leveraged already to allow a dividend under its existing bond docs but used a “temporary deleveraging” and escrow structure to work around them.