Loans and High Yield

Five borrowers helped to contribute to a heavy deal pipeline for acquisitions and refinancings this week, as secondary spreads tightened after last week's no issuance.

Wuzhou International Holdings’ Hong Kong-listed shares and dollar bonds resumed trading on Friday after slumping heavily in late May. The reopening followed a filing from the company on Thursday evening admitting it has defaulted on some of its payment obligations.

The European Central Bank surprised some corporate bond market participants on Thursday by setting out how it expects monetary policy to evolve over the next year and a half.

Asia’s bond market suffered prolonged bouts of volatility in the first half of the year. Bankers, credit analysts and asset managers are trying to shake off the disappointments in both the primary and secondary markets, but the signs are not good. Addison Gong reports.

Future Land Holdings Co raised $200m from a slightly unusual 3.75 year bond on Tuesday, but found investors distracted by the landmark Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.

Does it matter if a green bond becomes separated from the green assets that underlie it? The link keeps the issuer honest — but shouldn’t the green bond market be doing more than that?

French supermarket group Casino has announced a €1.5bn asset disposal plan, which should take pressure of holding company Rallye’s bonds. The asset sales are an attempt to deleverage amid sharp volatility in the company’s shares.

French banks will have to comply with a countercyclical capital buffer requirement as a means of promoting financial stability amid a rapid increase in corporate debt levels.

China Aoyuan Property Group raised a larger than planned $225m from a tap of its existing note on Monday, but had to pay up for the transaction. A Chinese local government financing vehicle (LGFV), on the other hand, fell short of its size expectation.

Singapore’s Wilmar International has raised a $200m sustainability-linked loan, the second of its kind from the agribusiness company in seven months.

Medical diagnostics firm Unilabs launched a benchmark size extension of its loan debt on Monday, as a range of investors clamour for paper despite issuance volumes running ahead of last year’s record pace.

A new proposed European Parliament and Council directive aimed at non-EU lenders and non-bank institutions will cause “significant uncertainty and disruption” to the primary and secondary syndicated loan markets, the Loan Market Association has warned.