Loans and High Yield

Shandong Iron & Steel Group, Excellence Commercial Properties and Sunshine 100 China Holdings completed their offshore fundraising exercises on Wednesday after announcing their deals with final price guidance.

The market volatility in the week of the US Thanksgiving holiday was a microcosm of where the corporate bond market has evolved to through 2018. Market volatility and lack of buying interest pushed spreads wider again, but that widening meant investors could not resist new issues for long.

Leveraged debt fund managers seem resigned to a low-rated deal pipeline and aggressive documentation this week, with the market likely to accept these conditions, despite a sell-off which saw the iTraxx Crossover at its widest so far this year, 340bp, on Wednesday.

Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co showed it is still possible for a Chinese local government financing vehicle (LGFV) to pay little new issue premium for a bond, but its move came at the expense of its order book dropping by a third.

Semen Indonesia has launched senior syndication for a $1.28bn loan that will be used to buy the local operations of rival LafargeHolcim.

Private equity firms Bain Capital and Cinven are financing their purchase of a further 28.3% stake in Stada Arzneimittel, the German pharmaceutical group, in the euro leveraged finance markets this week, and are having to contend with investors who are in a risk-averse mood.

Private school operator Cognita was the first borrower in a week to attempt an issue in the euro high yield market with a sub-benchmark size deal. It sought funding for its acquisition by Jacobs Holding, the Swiss investment and charitable firm, but pulled the bond deal after weak demand.

A number of sub-investment grade rated property developers and local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) used private-style executions for their public transactions this week — an increasingly popular approach among Chinese bond issuers.

Yanzhou Coal Mining Co pursued a $275m deal on Thursday, altering its initial fundraising goals to score a tightly priced transaction.

ANZ is relocating a senior leveraged and acquisition finance banker and former head of Asia loan syndications from Singapore to Sydney.

Belgium’s ADB Safegate has raised €59m in the leveraged loan market through a bolt-on transaction, with the airport services provider set for its acquisition of the UK’s Ultra Electronics Airport Systems.

The Co-operative Group pulled out of a new bond issue and took the rare step of cancelling a tender offer this week, with bankers pinning the blame on the UK’s Brexit brouhaha.