Loans and High Yield

Leo Paper Group, a Hong Kong-based printing services company, has signed a HK$350m ($45m) four year green term loan and revolving credit facility with seven banks, making it the first privately-held firm to complete such a transaction.

Crédit Agricole has created two new desks in Asia focused on acquisition and leveraged finance and coverage of funds, according to a statement on Tuesday.

Germany’s Cheplapharm Arzneimittel has signed €780m of loans, with the pharmaceutical company using the funds to refinance debt and fund acquisitions.

French asset manager Tikehau Capital has appointed a head of private equity.

Dollar bond issuance from China’s local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) has picked up in recent weeks, but a roadblock to a planned onshore deal from Qinghai Provincial Investment Group has once again turned the spotlight on government support for these fundraisings.

Sinopharm Holding China Finance Leasing, a unit of state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group, is tapping offshore banks for a $200m term loan.

The leveraged loan pipeline for September coughed into life this week, as AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals unveiled the first jumbo deal of the week, a €5bn loan to support its buyout by Carlyle and Singaporean government fund GIC.

Tom Muoio is joining Fitch Ratings' corporate issuer team in September, three months after leaving Jefferies.

Chinese property developer Gemdale Corp priced a $150m bond on Thursday, but told investors not to put in any orders after price guidance was released — a move that surprised many debt bankers.

A top Chinese automaker and Hong Kong listed-Xinyi Glass Holdings are separately sounding out banks for new syndicated financings.

Impact investing — a specialist field, outside mainstream financial markets, in which investors seek environmental and social outcomes — is burgeoning, leading promoters to raise their targets for the market’s growth. But at the same time, more conventional investors are also laying claim to the term “impact”.

Investors in corporate speculative grade debt in Europe are returning with appetite to their desks as the summer break ends. While the primary markets have yet to reveal a clear opening pipeline of deals for September, some fund managers said there were grounds to feel confident.