Loans and High Yield

Three Chinese local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) priced dollar bonds this week, despite a recent default in the onshore debt market.

A pair of Chinese borrowers broke the lull in new loan syndications from north Asia this week, seeking a combined $450m from their latest fundraisings.

Belle International reeled in some five banks in general syndication for its HK$30bn ($3.8bn) loan, with several more commitments left to be processed before the deal is closed.

China Aoyuan Property Group was back in the offshore market on Wednesday for the fourth time in as many months, using a dual-currency transaction to settle the last $300m of its fundraising quota.

Moody’s dropped its unsolicited corporate and bond ratings for WeWork on Wednesday, blaming “insufficient or otherwise inadequate information”, with the office leasing company understood to be comfortable with the higher solicited ratings it has from S&P Global and Fitch.

Environmental, social and governance investors have done a fine job of making their approach accepted and now mainstream in a money-driven industry. Along the way, they started saying it was all pragmatic, not about principles. That was a fiction, and under the pressure of climate change, it is being replaced with a more rounded philosophy. Jon Hay reports.

Many bond investors now say they engage with borrowers on ESG issues. Companies are noticing, and a virtuous circle is beginning to turn. But much of the conversation is still very gentle and diffuse, and not concentrated at the point of capital raising. As Jon Hay reports, more ambitious engagements to change whole industries lie in the future.

European corporate bond investors were pleasantly surprised to be offered two new deals last week before the traditional return of the market following the August bank holiday in the UK. Those bonds did nothing, however, to curb their appetite for a full-throated autumn of issuance

CPI Ronghe Financial Leasing is in the market for its second international loan after wrapping up a successful debut last November.

No new high bonds emerged this week in the US market before the Labor Day holiday, with low volumes helping to keep prices firm and yields tight.

HNA Group-owned Haikou Meilan International Airport’s international bond went on a rollercoaster ride in the secondary market on Monday, after the company missed the payment deadline on an onshore bond.

The amount of debt at the risky end of the US corporate bond market has tripled since the financial crisis, possibly putting pressure on the high yield market if downgrades start to climb, Fitch Ratings said last Friday.