Loans and High Yield

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High yield and leveraged loan spreads have widened in the last few days, as news of the coronavirus outbreak has worsened. But neither that, nor new figures from Moody's showing downgrades outnumbering upgrades, is putting off investors long used to hanging on through gritty conditions. Chemical producer Inovyn managed to complete a €1.064bn loan amend-and-extend on Tuesday.

Morrison & Foerster, the San Francisco law firm, has hired Matthew Dunlap as a partner in the finance practice in its London office.

Four Chinese property companies raised $2bn between them from dollar bonds on Monday, coming at a particularly turbulent day for markets globally as fears rise around the rapid spread of Covid-19 outside of the Mainland.

Singapore’s Park Hotel Group has sealed its maiden green loan, raising S$237m ($169m) from United Overseas Bank.

An unusual sale of old bonds in the primary market was announced on Monday. Two entities of Brookfield, the Canadian asset manager, are selling up to $411m of bonds issued in 2018 by Teekay Offshore Partners, the Norwegian oil services group.

Chinese travel services provider Trip.com Group has picked Standard Chartered as the mandated lead arranger and bookrunner for a $1.2bn refinancing deal.

Swissport, the airport services company owned by HNA Group of China, successfully shaved 25bp off the cost of its term loan B in its recent repricing, in spite of a backdrop of increased fears about the coronavirus and its impact on the aviation industry. However, the deal was less of a slam dunk than other recent refinancings.

Dutch equipment rental company Boels has launched a €1.61bn term loan B to finance the acquisition of Cramo, a Finnish rival. It is a rare chance for lenders to access a leveraged deal with maintenance covenants, a concession sponsors will no longer give but which some companies can still tolerate — though the huge headroom in this case means they are a minimal restriction.

Investors flocked to Indian credits on Thursday, as UPL Corp and Muthoot Finance sealed new dollar bonds in a busy market.

Three Chinese issuers visited the dollar bond market on Thursday, raising $1.2bn between them.

With most high yield companies still preparing annual numbers, the primary bond market saw only two US-based issuers choosing to print unsecured deals this week. The deals were in popular industries and intended to refinance existing debt, but with the strong market backdrop one issuer opted to boost the size of its issue.