Loans and High Yield

Mizuho has hired Robert Lepone as head of loan trading EMEA, a newly created job intended to expand the Japanese bank’s loan distribution capabilities.

Jiangsu Zhongnan Construction Group Co raised $250m from a new money and exchange offer on Monday.

Asian lenders have often balked at dividend recaps. They should reconsider.

BNP Paribas has leapfrogged JP Morgan to become the top bookrunner in EMEA loans this quarter, with the French bank almost doubling its market share. But this increase has yet to play out in the bank’s bond bookrunning activities in the region.

Hong Kong-listed Car Inc raised $250m from a bond last Friday, riding on the positive sentiment of an ongoing take-private deal and better access to funding.

Philippine company SPi Global, an outsourcing services provider, is understood to be seeking a $300m to $400m loan, some of which will go towards funding a dividend recapitalisation.

The financial markets’ stance on climate change has taken a stride forward as 43 asset managers with $23tr of assets including some of the biggest such as BlackRock and Vanguard have joined the Net Zero Asset Managers’ Initiative. A critical mass of investors is now committed to reducing carbon emissions in their portfolios to zero, meaning that companies can be in no doubt which way they have to go if they want to maximise their potential investor base.

Credit Suisse has hired the former head of Bank of America’s European leveraged finance capital markets, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital.

Power Construction Corp of China priced its $500m bond 20bp inside of fair value this week, taking advantage of the rarity value of perpetual notes from the country’s state-owned companies.

Shriram Transport Finance Co caught an opportune time to print a $225m tap of a bond on Thursday, with the response to its deal reflecting investor preference for strong Indian credits.

Casino operator MGM China Holdings added more liquidity to its balance sheet this week with a $750m bond outing.

The polite world of sustainable finance has collided with the ugly reality of politics in the past week, as open strife has broken out over the European Union’s sustainable finance legislation, especially the Taxonomy. Conservative and progressive elements are battling over a host of issues, above all whether gas power should ever be classed as sustainable, and the validity and even legality of the Taxonomy is being called into question.