Loans and High Yield

Hong Kong-listed Jiayuan International Group has wrapped up an exchange-plus-new money offering worth $225m.

Zhenro Properties Group has wrapped up its debut offshore borrowing at $120m-equivalent with commitments from five lenders.

FWD Group raised $550m from an unusual subordinated five year bond, just a few days after announcing a $3bn acquisition of one of the largest life insurance firms in Thailand, SCB Life Assurance.

Guangzhou R&F Properties Co attracted a huge order book for its sixth dollar deal this year, while Hong Kong-listed Dafa Properties Group turned to anchor support for its inaugural offshore public bond.

Refinitiv’s 2018 high yield bond was slammed for having the weakest ever investor protections. Now another Blackstone consortium is about to use that deal as a template in the £5.9bn public-to-private buyout of theme park giant Merlin. The financing package also features protection against short-selling debt activists — an activity associated with Blackstone unit GSO Capital. Karoliina Liimatainen reports.

The largest second lien tranche since the financial crisis, a Sfr1.3bn-equivalent deal, was placed to just five accounts, GlobalCapital understands, supporting EQT, Luxina and PSP’s $10bn buyout of Nestlé Skin Health. The big second lien tickets illustrate the depth of demand for the product, which has been buoyed by the cash raised for direct lending opportunities — and supports the deal through senior syndication.

Société Générale’s revamp of its investment bank, first announced in April, will refocus the bank’s financing efforts around sponsor-driven business, as corporate clients are not steering enough fees towards the bank to pay for its balance sheet commitments.

Outstanding dollar bonds from troubled Chinese state-owned commodity trader Tewoo Group hit new lows this week after the company’s subsidiary allegedly missed onshore loan payments.

DCM bankers in Asia are predicting a record year for bond issuance, following a strong first half buoyed by positive investor sentiment and favourable market conditions. Although the year so far shows a complicated story of feast and famine in different parts of the debt market, there is plenty of optimism for the rest of 2019. Morgan Davis reports.

The arrest of Future Land Development Holdings’ founder and chairman caused a sharp sell-off in the Chinese property company’s dollar bonds, with analysts worried the incident may hurt its debt-servicing ability in the short and long term.

President Trump's friendlier tone at the G20 meeting in Osaka last weekend, when he said the US would not immediately raise tariffs on Chinese imports, has given investment grade corporate bond issuers a bullish market this week, and several have taken advantage. High yield is quiet, by contrast.

Tsinghua Tongfang Co has priced a smaller $300m deal, as investors appeared cautious amid an ongoing share sale. Yuzhou Properties and Shandong Guohui Investment Co returned to the market and saw big order books, the latter fueled by lead manager interest.