Loans and High Yield

The Bank of England may soon tweak its macroprudential policies and introduce a new funding scheme for banks to mitigate the economic impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus epidemic on companies. The measures would help lenders at a time when they could face pressure from lower rates and rising impairments.

Shares in guarantor loans company Amigo Holdings plunged more than 25% at the open on Thursday while its high yield bond, a 7.625% 2024, was marked down more than 30 points, as founder James Benamor quit the board, then published a lengthy blog post describing the company as "committing slow motion suicide". Amigo hit back quickly with a statement rejecting many of Benamor’s comments but prices failed to bounce back.

Chinese property developer Jingrui Holdings made its first dollar outing of 2020 on Wednesday, raising $180m from the bond.

Sinic Holdings (Group) Co and JY Grandmark Holdings made their debuts in the dollar bond market on Wednesday. Both issuers opted to use a 364-day tenor to get the deals done.

Shares in Intu Properties, the UK real estate investment trust focused on shopping centres, tanked this week after the company said on Wednesday morning that it has called off its £1bn-plus rights issue due to “extreme” market conditions.

Coronavirus fears and plunging markets meant a flood of pulled deals in leveraged loans — but a strong backdrop for some, notably French medical diagnostics and testing business Biogroup-LCD which launched a €274.7m acquisition loan into general syndication through JP Morgan and Natixis on Tuesday.

China Hongqiao Group, an aluminium producer, has returned to the loan market for a $200m borrowing,

China’s Luxshare Precision is in the market seeking a $500m revolving credit facility, returning to bank lenders after an absence of three years.

LVGEM (China) Real Estate Investment Co raised $450m as part of a new money and exchange offer on Tuesday. The borrower opted for an exchange offer on its old 2020 bond as a way of reducing the impact of recent volatility.

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice has launched a take-private bid for UK based healthcare marketing and PR firm Huntsworth, bidding an enterprise value of £524m for the company. The debt financing for the deal is a $295m term loan and a £35m revolver provided by Royal Bank of Canada.

Troubled UK tech firm Micro Focus succumbed to miserable market conditions on Monday when it decided to postpone a refinancing and extension of its revolver, promising a return "once market conditions improve".

TCC Group, controlled by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, has agreed a $10bn two year loan to support its bid for Tesco’s Asian assets.