Loans and High Yield

Chinese car rental company CAR has wrapped up a liability management exercise, pushing its maturity curve out to 2022 despite fears in the credit market about the US-China trade war.

China’s industrial and automotive parts manufacturer Zhongding Group has cut the price for its €200m loan refinancing.

The Co-operative Group, the UK food retailer, undertaker, insurer and legal services provider, has announced a £250m sustainable bond issue which will be unusual in three ways. Green and sustainable bonds are rare in the UK and rare in the high yield market, while the use of proceeds Co-op is planning is close to unique.

Three new high yield issues were launched into marketing in Europe on Tuesday, including a pay-if-you-can bond, even though the market was a bit weaker after President Donald Trump’s sabre-rattling about raising trade tariffs on China.

With South Korea and the Philippines heading to euros for new bond transactions, more issuers from Asia should take courage and consider funding in the needlessly neglected currency.

China’s Shimao Property Holdings has returned to the offshore loan market for a new borrowing, with a size of between $700m and $1bn.

Altice, the international telecoms group led by Patrick Drahi, has set final terms for its jumbo high yield bond issue for its holding company, worth €2.8bn. It paid up compared with its curve to issue, but managed to place the second largest triple-C tranche ever issued in euros, a source said.

Indonesia’s Medco Energi Internasional wrapped up a $650m bond outing on Thursday, closing off an acquisition financing exercise linked to a bridge loan from earlier in the year.

China’s Suning Financial Services, a subsidiary of home appliance company Suning Holding Group, is tapping the offshore loan market with a $300m borrowing.

Energy services group Serba Dinamik Holdings raised $300m from a three year wakala sukuk on Thursday, before watching the bond quickly trade up in the secondary market.

The high costs of bidding for the next generation of mobile technology is pushing telecoms firms, many of which operate with leveraged capital structures, to sharpen their balance sheets through asset sales and paying down debt. Mobile moguls like Patrice Drahi, Xavier Niel and John Malone are all taking steps to optimise their empires. Owen Sanderson reports.

ICG’s purchase of Italian generic pharmaceuticals firm DOC Generici is likely to be financed with high yield bonds, according to bankers, once the deal receives regulatory approval. The deal is said to be worth around €1.2bn in total, though ICG has declined to comment at all on the financing structure.