Loans and High Yield

As Europe’s leveraged finance markets return to growth, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has added Apostolos Gkoutzinis and Rebecca Marques as partners to its leveraged finance and capital markets team.

SGG Group, the corporate and investor services firm based in Luxembourg and owned by Astorg, will fund its acquisition of UK peer First Names in the leveraged loan market, which has already enjoyed its busiest January ever in EMEA.

We are excited to announce that the GlobalCapital Bond Awards Poll is now open.

The Asian loan market has had to battle a tough few years, with record volumes in 2014 tailed by four straight annual declines. But loans bankers in the region have a feeling their time may have come.

In stark contrast with a mute high yield bond market, leveraged loan investors were expecting more than €5bn of new deals on Monday, including a $725m-equivalent deal from Swedish trade technology provider Itiviti, which includes a triple-C rated second lien.

The US high yield market is hunkering down, with skittish investors pulling a record amount of cash for the sector this week while the proportion of investors shorting high yield exchange traded funds hits a post-crisis high. David Bell reports.

Investors in Europe’s leveraged finance markets have started to fight for better pricing and deal terms. But a lack of supply is playing in borrowers' favour.

Investors want the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (Afme) to bulk up their fight against loose high yield bond terms. Afme wants high yield investors to pay a fee for the first time. With borrowers only now tentatively coming back after an unusual risk off pause, this week’s confrontation between Afme and some investor members will add uncertainty to new deal pricing, said market participants.

Bookrunners will start marketing the financing for KKR’s buyout of Unilever’s spread business as soon as next week, with the European high yield bond and the leveraged loan market both braced for supply.

A Chinese company’s decision to pay an extra 300bp in coupon to defer payments on its onshore perpetual notes has not only shocked the domestic bond market, but also inevitably raised concerns offshore. Bankers and investors are now paying much closer attention to the onshore/offshore dynamics.

Greetings card company American Greetings, which owns brands such as Papyrus and Carlton Cards, has obtained financing from a consortium of banks to finance Clayton, Dubilier & Rice’s acquisition of a 60% stake in the privately owned firm.

Sources have said 3i plans to follow a buy-and-build approach with the newly acquired Royal Sanders, the Anglo-Dutch personal care product manufacturer. The strategy would mirror its successful expansion of drinks bottling company Refresco, which sparked a bounty of deals in the high yield and leveraged loan markets.