Loans and High Yield

Shandong Iron & Steel Group Co and a Chinese government-owned entity from Xuzhou both took a cautious approach to their dollar bonds on Thursday in a market that has become increasingly volatile.

Chinese technology company Tsinghua Tongfang Co hit the market on Thursday in a desperate attempt to use its offshore regulatory approved fundraising quota before it expires at the end of March. While the issuer managed to raise $300m, the transaction was a rough one.

The traditional investment grade debt buyers that have ventured into Europe's high yield and leveraged loan markets since quantitative easing sucked much of the juice out of high grade markets are showing no sign of losing their thirst for levfin, despite the looming end of QE, writes Victor Jimenez.

LendInvest, the UK online property finance platform, has launched the second deal of the year on the London Stock Exchange’s Order book for retail bonds. The firm is optimistic on the outlook for sterling assets in the retail and property sectors, despite the headwinds faced by some issuers this month.

DCM bankers in Asia are gearing up for a hectic April as investors put the US interest rate hike behind them. But how will borrowers, particularly those that are lower rated, navigate the many fundraising challenges ahead? Addison Gong finds out.

Asia’s dollar bond issuers were back in the market on Thursday after taking a pause during the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting this week.

2018 has proven a difficult year for the IG corporate bond market so far. Instead of the smooth waters of 2017, conditions have been more choppy and issuers and their syndicates have had to navigate a more careful path to market and often paying more to insulate investors from secondary market volatility. However, there are likely to be more difficult conditions ahead with fewer support mechanisms available.

Commodities trader Noble Group decided not to repay a $379m bond that matured this week, triggering an event of default. But the latest development got little reaction from the market, as the company has long been in the process of restructuring almost $3.4bn of debt.

Hong Kong-listed New World Development has converted a loan signed in March 2016 into a green loan, a first of its kind for the company and in line with its plan to promote sustainability across its business.

Virgin Media raised £300m from a receivables financing note this week, a deal that despite being more complex than normal high yield bonds, was liked by fund managers.

Malaysian rubber gloves manufacturer Top Glove Corp has sealed a $310m loan, with robust support from banks making the deal 2.5 times covered.

Funding for leveraged buyouts in the European primary high yield market gained further share of overall issuance this week, as specialty car parts maker LKQ of Chicago sold a €1bn bond for its acquisition of German peer Stahlgruber.