Loans and High Yield

Nabil Lahham has joined HSBC to head up advisory and corporate finance coverage for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. He was most recently at Perella Weinberg Partners.

Nomura has made sustainability one of the pillars of its fightback in investment banking, as it joins the race to harness the power of sustainability-related M&A and capital markets deals.

Lyxor has launched a suite of environmental, social and governance high yield exchange-traded funds, following BlackRock’s iShares into the burgeoning market for investment products screened for sustainability. The French firm switched its investment grade ETF to follow a sustainable index last year, but opted to create a new product line for high yield.

The syndication of loans to fund Hellman & Friedman’s carve-out of AutoScout24 has seen strong demand, sufficient to support pricing through the tight end of talk on both tranches. The deal has also been recut to squeeze out a larger first lien, cutting the cost of a deal that is among the most levered public issues seen in Europe since the 2007-08 financial crisis.

India Infoline Finance, a non-banking financial company (NBFC), made its debut in the international debt market on Wednesday, raising $400m from a bond that paid a negative new issue premium.

Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel returned to the debt market on Wednesday to tap its $750m 5.65% perpetual notes, after successful deals in the equity market this year gave its bonds a boost.

Trans Retail Indonesia, also known as Carrefour Indonesia, has returned to the loan market for a $740m-equivalent dual-currency deal. It features an unusual fee structure that has left many bankers scratching their heads, writes Pan Yue.

Investec has furthered its push in corporate finance with five new hires. It continues to win new UK broking mandates.

Chinese borrowers continued to find strong response for their dollar bonds on Wednesday, despite the Covid-19 virus outbreak plaguing the country.

Italian shipping company Moby Lines has signed a standstill agreement until the end of the month with bondholders and requested that senior lenders also refrain from enforcement, as restructuring talks progress.

High yield is mostly in a hiatus, with issuers waiting for full year numbers before pushing back into the market. Only UK broadband company TalkTalk is issuing this week, offering a rare slug of sterling supply to a market that has been euro-dominated for most of the year. For the corners of the loan market without such problems, though, there is still a bid, even for credits with stories.

Sustainable finance players are enthusiastic about regulation, which they expect to bring clarity and order to the market. It may — though when the new EU rules are implemented they are likely to irk participants more than they expect. But what would be really effective are direct actions that bypass finance.