Loans and High Yield

The only high yield bond deal being actively marketed in euros this week has been postponed. The deal was for Fugro, the Dutch company that provides geographical data and asset integrity services to onshore and offshore industries. It was a debut issue for a listed company with no sponsor involved, so there had been good interest, but market conditions just proved too difficult.

Three Chinese real estate developers braved a volatile market on Thursday, raising $800m as fears around the coronavirus continued to ravage secondary prices.

The shock of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak has forced some rapid thinking among capital markets participants. Almost the first impact has been on travel.

Leveraged finance investors are no shrinking violets, and held out longer than most against the rising pessimism caused by the coronavirus. But by Thursday, it was even giving high yield and leveraged loan players a sinking feeling.

Workers of the world’s capital markets united this week in efforts to keep the funding flowing as the threat of the Covid-19 coronavirus advances. Roadshows, mandate pitches and even quotidian office life faced emergency changes as embattled financiers braced themselves and their businesses for virus disruption.

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Executives working on the $411m resale of Teekay Offshore Partners bonds by Brookfield, the Canadian asset manager, have slowed their work on the deal this week as high yield market conditions worsened amid growing concern about the coronavirus outbreak.

Chinese brokerage Shenwan Hongyuan Securities is out for a one-year bridge loan, seeking HK$3bn ($385m) for its international loan market debut.

Chinese travel services provider Trip.com Group is seeking a $1.2bn loan at a time when markets are reeling from the rapid spread of the coronavirus outside the mainland and companies are assessing the impact of the epidemic on their businesses. Despite difficult market conditions, the borrower has received plenty of interest for the deal. Pan Yue reports.

Chinese local government financing vehicle Xi'an Qujiang Culture Holdings Co raised $300m from a three year bond sale on Wednesday.

Conditions are changing so fast with the coronavirus epidemic that each day could bring a change in sentiment, but for the time being leveraged finance is staying calm and continuing to function. There is more activity in this high risk corner of Europe’s capital markets than in any other, apart from sovereign, supranational and agency bonds.

VPBank Finance Company, the consumer finance arm of Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank, is in talks with banks for a new loan.