Loans and High Yield

Rubis Terminal looks set to make the first European high yield debut since the coronavirus crisis hit, announcing a new €410m issue to fund a minority investment by I Squared Capital. Business has boomed at the company, which operates bulk liquid storage, thanks to the collapsing oil price.

With leveraged companies largely shut out of central bank bond buying and price support schemes, sponsors are mulling government-backed lending schemes in several European countries, as they seek to show other creditors that they have abundant access to liquidity. But the schemes often come with strings attached, which could do nearly as much damage to a sponsor's investment thesis as a restructuring.

Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur has sent out a request for proposals for a loan to back its acquisition of instant noodle maker Pinehill Company.

Chinese technology company Lenovo Group took advantage of improving sentiment and small new issue premiums on recent deals to reopen a dollar bond sold in April. It raised $350m from the tap on Thursday, but investor interest was quite muted.

The merger of the UK’s largest mobile phone operator, O2, with cable company Virgin Media, agreed on Thursday, will generate a £6bn financing need which the parties want to complete before the deal closes, expected to be in 2021 — and later on, it could lead to an IPO, say sources close to the deal.

Macau casino operator SJM Holdings is in talks with lenders for covenant waivers on a HK$25bn ($3.2bn) facility, as it faces delays over opening a new resort in Asia’s gambling hub.

GlobalCapital and Standard Chartered hosted a virtual roundtable in mid-April to discuss the changes China's high yield issuers have faced in 2020 — and the challenges they will have to contend with for the rest of the year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chinese conglomerate HNA Group has missed yet another payment, this time of $750m, on a loan it raised in 2016 to acquire Ingram Micro, a US information technology and products distributor.

Hertz, Avis and Europcar are all facing the same problem. Nobody is travelling, and so nobody is renting cars. Vast airport car parks full of ready-to-go rental cars stand idle, and cash flows at all three companies have stopped almost dead. But they have fared very differently — from near-bankruptcy to leaning hard on government.

Nokia has launched a €1bn dual-tranche issue and a tender offer for a bond maturing next year, sucking up a higher funding cost to push out its term structure. Leads started wide but cranked the bonds in, with a 60bp move from initial price thoughts (IPTs) on the back of nearly €6bn of demand. Despite the swathe of downgrades hitting crossover issuers since the coronavirus crisis broke, the Finnish tech company is still planning to regain its investment-grade status in the next years.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment has closed a HK$14.85bn ($1.9bn) revolving credit facility to refinance an old borrowing maturing this June.

Cambodian micro finance company Amret has closed its debut loan after attracting six participants during syndication.