Loans and High Yield

Refresco’s $1.25bn acquisition of Cott’s drinks bottling business raises monopoly concerns, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said this week. But market sources see a quick fix ahead.

Citi finished 2017 in its highest ever position in the EMEA league tables, leading from the front in ECM. David Rothnie asks whether it can topple JP Morgan.

The lack of volatility combined with the continual grind tighter of spreads of investment grade corporate bonds meant investors in the asset class enjoyed good returns in 2017. Similar conditions look set to prevail at the start of 2018, but investors need to maintain vigilance.

South African telecommunications company MTN Group is holding a non-deal roadshow in Taipei this month.

India’s Tata Steel has issued indicative pricing for a borrowing totalling $2.15bn, which will mainly refinance debt at its Singaporean and Dutch units.

Sweden-based EQT has provided funding to Abac, a private equity firm in Catalonia, to invest further in local portfolio company Metalcaucho, which makes spare parts for cars. This was despite political unrest in the region.

The European high yield bond market may have endured a year of multi-billion outflows from retail funds but investors and bankers on the first business week of 2018 are predicting a busy first quarter of supply will be met with sufficient demand.

China’s Shandong Chenming Paper Holdings is ready to start the new year with its first dollar bond issuance.

Tata Steel is in discussions with lenders for a $2bn borrowing to fund a proposed expansion in India and take out some debt raised by its European unit, said sources.

Dealogic could be one of the last leveraged loan deals to close in 2017. With allocations of its dividend recapitalisation loans due on Friday, the deal is likely to cap what has been an all-time record year of issuance in the European leveraged loan market.

International Finance Corp has joined forces with Goldman Sachs to extend a $110m syndicated loan to Vietnam’s An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank, a portion of which will be used to provide loans to women-owned enterprises in the country.

Lowell, the UK-German debt collector, will seek funding for its northern European expansion in the high yield bond market, as it buys Intrum’s branches in the Scandinavia region, Finland and Estonia.