Loans and High Yield

Leveraged finance bankers say they have a substantial deal pipeline in sterling to execute this autumn, while the UK's fall into political chaos threatens market volatility. Sub-investment grade buyers are likely to be offered buyout debt for Ei Group, Merlin and BCA Marketplace, among a flood of business totalling at least £15bn ($18.5bn), writes Owen Sanderson.

Holders of the defaulted EA Partners bonds claim that Etihad Airways and Abu Dhabi gave them implicit guarantees for the notes, which were issued to fund other troubled airlines. The bondholders, backed by restructuring advisers and corporate sleuths, are buckling up for a battle for their money. Karoliina Liimatainen reports.

Peter Kerckhoffs will join Moelis & Company in December to advise clients in the Netherlands and across Europe. JP Morgan has replaced him as senior country officer for that country with Cassander Verwey.

Shenzhen Jiangtong Leasing Financial, a subsidiary of Jiangxi Copper Corp, is tapping the loan market for the first time for a $100m borrowing.

China’s Xtep International Holdings and Suning Financial Services have closed their respective offshore borrowings.

Salt, the Swiss telecommunications company controlled by a French billionaire Xavier Niel, is touring Europe this week marketing senior secured notes, as it attempts to refinance a large chunk of its existing debt.

A new flurry of investment grade corporate bond issuers jumped into the market on Wednesday morning, after Danaher priced its €6.25bn five-tranche Reverse Yankee note. Getting that deal out of the way gave other corporate borrowers room to bring bonds of their own — and plenty are expected to in the run-up toe the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement on September 12.

Chinese local government financing vehicle (LGFV) Zhangzhou Jiulongjiang Group Co reopened the post-summer bond market with a $500m deal, making its debut in dollars.

Tata AutoComp Systems, an Indian company that provides automotive components, has returned to the loan market for a dual-currency deal to refinance its acquisition borrowing from 2017.

Barcelona-headquartered paper company Lecta is appealing to bondholders as it tries to strengthen its capital structure. Its bonds are now trading in the 30s while the CVC-sponsored company has fully used its revolving credit facility and is running out of external sources of financing.

ING and RiverRock have struck a deal to give the asset manager access to ING’s pipeline of senior loans, as part of the launch of RiverRock’s debut senior loan fund. The Dutch bank, unlike other commercial banks, committed to avoid cherry-picking its pipeline, and to show RiverRock everything that was eligible for the fund.

JP Morgan has hired Nomura’s Ryan Dawson as a managing director in its leveraged finance origination team, covering sponsors in EMEA and sponsors and corporates in the UK.