Loans and High Yield

UK corporate debt is at an all-time high as the risks posed by a traumatic departure from the EU in October peak. Default risk among UK industrials has deteriorated sharply in recent years while at the same time their EU counterparts have lowered their risk profile. Karoliina Liimatainen reports.

Macau casino operator MGM China has raised its first unsecured borrowing, joining a handful of companies raising straight loans to replace outstanding secured facilities. Bankers think that plenty more casinos will take a punt on the format. Pan Yue reports.

Greenko Energy Holdings skirted market volatility on Wednesday, seizing a rare opportunity to close a dollar deal.

Acadia Healthcare, which owns UK mental healthcare provider the Priory Group, needs the consent of lenders if it wants to go through with its plan to sell the company, a research company says. US-based Acadia could be forced to use the proceeds of the sale to deleverage.

With no major new issues in sight, the high yield bond market has been dominated by the news of troubled businesses struggling to come up with credible turnaround plans.

Romain Lanier has joined Perella Weinberg Partners from fellow advisory firm PJT Partners to be a managing director in the European financial restructuring team.

China IT company Chinasoft International has returned to the syndicated loan market after six years, seeking a HK$1bn ($127m) facility.

Zhenro Properties Group returned to the dollar bond market for the seventh time this year on Tuesday, tapping one of its March transactions for an additional $110m. But the market presented a whole different set of problems for the borrower this time round.

Burford Capital, the litigation funder, is under pressure over how it accounts for an obscure type of asset and how it finances its business using debt. In many respects it is a unique case, but it is a debacle fuelled by quantitative easing. With more of that on the way, pushing investors into ever more esoteric asset classes in the quest for yield, there will be plenty more businesses under scrutiny.

MGM China has raised a HK$9.75bn ($1bn) unsecured revolving credit facility with a group of 13 lenders to repay its old secured borrowings.

Volatility has hurt secondary spreads and primary deal flow in the Asian bond market but really it is no bad thing. A quiet month is just what the market needs after an overwhelming amount of supply so far this year.

Swissport, the world’s largest provider of cargo and airport ground services, increased the loan portion of its debt raise at the expense of bonds as investors demanded steep yields in a volatile market.