Loans and High Yield

France’s FFP issued a €300m no grow seven year debut bond on Wednesday, marking a rare market outing from an unrated French credit this year.

High grade corporate bond investors found themselves in a tricky spot this week with issuers entering an earnings blackout period just as the European Central Bank has added a huge technical bid in the form of its asset purchase scheme.Meanwhile, the macroeconomic picture is starting to look increasingly frayed at the edges for debt markets.

JP Morgan has appointed Alex Watkins as head of equity capital markets for the UK, replacing Nicholas Hall. Meanwhile, the bank has picked a new head of its consumer and retail sector coverage team for UK investment banking.

Asian issuers tend to treat the 144A market as little more than a sideshow, rarely putting in the extra work to bring their deals to US investors. That needs to change.

Parkson Retail Group, a department store operator, has returned to the loan market after eight years, sealing a HK$3.9bn ($497m) borrowing.

Bain Capital has given in to a laundry list of demands from investors as they snubbed bonds for Kantar, resulting in a delay to the deal's schedule. In a rare case of aggressive investor push-back, covenants have now been flexed to the extreme and initial price thoughts look surprisingly high, given the exceptionally favourable market for new issuers.

VodafoneZiggo is marketing a €400m vendor financing note through Citi and Credit Suisse, which will part-fund the Dutch telecoms firm’s existing €1bn vendor financing programme.

Alvaro Estevez has joined JP Morgan from Bank of America, in order to lead a team that works with large multi-national companies.

UBS is reorganising its investment bank, trying to save $90m a year, it revealed on Tuesday, alongside a dismal set of third quarter results for underwriting and advisory.

Celia Murray has been appointed as head of M&A and corporate finance for the UK at JP Morgan.

Vietnamese dairy producer NutiFood Nutrition Food Joint Stock Company has postponed a planned three year dollar bond, but said it has not given up hope of returning to the debt market later.

China Jushi, which makes fibreglass, is seeking a $150m debut borrowing through sole mandated lead arranger and bookrunner Standard Chartered.