Loans and High Yield

Duty-free operator Dufry has joined the throng of issuers in the high yield primary markets with its first straight offering since the coronavirus pandemic hit. The new bond comes after extensive efforts to shore up the company’s capital, including the early conversion of a crisis era convert and talks with lenders for more covenant waivers.

The three global loan associations have launched the Social Loan Principles (SLP), as the ESG finance market expands beyond its environmental roots.

Lufthansa has issued a quirky Schuldschein this week, according to market sources, in that it was bought by the eight banks that arranged it, rather than being sold to investors.

An affiliate of department store Sogo Hong Kong has returned to the loan market for a HK$8bn ($1bn) deal to refinance a borrowing from 2016.

Petron Corp, a Philippine oil company, raised $550m from a senior perpetual bond sale this week.

With holidays and earning out of the way and markets wide open, four new high yield bonds and two big term loans hit the market on Monday, constituting more than $11bn of internationally-targeted supply in total, with more than €4.5bn of euros in the mix.

Zhenro Properties Group sold a short dated bond worth $220m on Thursday, adding further momentum to Asia’s growing green market.

Chinese department store operator Golden Eagle Retail Group has closed a $601m-equivalent refinancing loan with 15 lenders.

Röhm, the renamed Evonik Specialty Chemicals, is back in the market looking to refinance its 2026 €997m term loan 'B' near par, following a surprisingly strong performance through 2020.

Organon, the spin-off from US pharma company Merck, has launched a bond leg of its financing, which will establish the unit as a separate firm with its own capital structure, while funding a $9bn dividend to its former parent. The firm was initially offering $4.5bn-equivalent across secured and unsecured bonds, with a bias to the deeper dollar market, but scaled this up during syndication to allow it to strip out bank debt.

TI Fluid Systems, an auto parts company, is marketing its first unsecured debt, a €600m eight year non-call three, which it plans to use to repay part of its secured debt. It has also launched repricing on this loan, looking to cut margins and reset Euribor floors to market standard levels.

HSBC is relocating the regional head of its leveraged and acquisition finance (LAF) business from Hong Kong to London to help implement its UK strategy.