Loans and High Yield

Hengda Real Estate Group Co, a subsidiary of China Evergrande Group, raised $4bn across two tranches on Tuesday, just days after Evergrande nabbed $2bn from another bond sale.

UK flooring company Victoria issued a €170m add-on to its €330m of outstanding 5.25% senior secured notes, due in 2024. The royal carpet maker successfully issued its debut bond last summer after failing at the first attempt in 2018 in a horribly timed launch.

Altice France has jumped into one of the busiest weeks on record for European leveraged loans and high yield issuance, announcing €2.1bn of bonds, alongside an exchange designed to simplify the group’s capital structure.

Leveraged credit is firing on all cylinders. The best issuers are breaking coupon and margin records and there are bold dividend deals and major league new money LBOs.

Korea South-East Power Co (Kosep) and ReNew Power Private gave a further boost to the growing green bond market on Tuesday.

Three companies from the Greater China region sealed bonds on Tuesday, likely to be the last batch of issuers to tap the debt market before the Chinese New Year break begins. No Asian borrowers launched dollar deals on Wednesday.

BFI Finance Indonesia, which provides funding for automobiles, heavy equipment and properties, has returned to the loan market for a $75m borrowing.

Empark, a Spanish car parking firm owned by a Macquarie infrastructure fund, is issuing a high yield bond to fund a dividend and refinance existing bonds.

UBS’s investment bank spent around $80m from restructuring related to personnel at the end of last year. The Swiss bank has also said it will look into partnerships with other banks for its investment bank.

French TV production group Banijay launched on Tuesday a $2.373bn-equivalent financing package, consisting of secured and unsecured bonds, a term loan and a revolver, to pay for its takeover of Endemol Shine, a Disney- and Apollo-backed Dutch production company.

Techem has now added a €600m high yield bond to the planned repricing of its €2.3bn term loan B, in a sign that bonds are now the more competitive product for some issuers, especially those at the top end of the market.

Intu, the British real estate and investment trust focused on shopping centres, has confirmed it will be tapping its shareholders for equity capital in February, but sources say the company needs to outline its vision for its future, given the headwinds buffeting the UK retail sector.