Loans and High Yield

A burst of M&A-related financing has put the spotlight on the Asian leveraged finance market, which some still see as a poor relation to its US, European and Australian equivalents. But recent deals show that Asia’s levfin market has been evolving.

China’s Baidu is readying a dual-tranche dollar bond offering, mandating banks for the deal, while Melco Resorts Finance opened a tap of its May notes on Tuesday.

Greenland Hong Kong Holdings returned to the market on Tuesday for the second time in as many weeks, as Shandong Ruyi Technology Group Co and Hong Kong conglomerate Swire Pacific also launched dollar deals.

L1 Retail, the retail division of holding company LetterOne, has agreed to buy UK health food retailer Holland & Barrett from Carlyle for £1.77bn. The deal comes after one global financial sponsors head at a bank forecast less traditional sponsors, such as LetterOne and SoftBank, to become important players in the buyout market.

Toby Ali has left his leveraged finance job at Bank of America Merrill Lynch to join Citi.

French family office Caravelle has been granted exclusivity to buy Tiama, a provider of services to the glass packaging industry, from shareholders EQT Credit II, Kartesia, European Capital and Omnes.

The sub-underwriting phase of a HK$28bn ($3.6bn) financing to support the take private of Hong Kong-listed footwear company Belle International Holdings has wrapped up, with nine lenders joining original mandated lead arranger and bookrunner (MLAB) Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML).

Qingdao Lidong Chemical Co, a unit of petroleum products company GS Aromatics, is seeking a $60m loan in general syndication.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) has hired Duncan Connellan as managing director of its Australian event finance team, part of the firm’s Asian investment banking division.

US vehicle parts manufacturer Federal-Mogul cruised through its second fixed rate deal in the euro high yield market this week.

Chinese real estate developer Times Property has hit the loan syndications market for a dual currency financing, about two months after issuing an offshore bond.

Turk Eximbank, which wrapped up a €412m refinancing in March, has turned its attention to the Asian loan market for a fresh money €300m borrowing.