Loans and High Yield

Avaloq, a Swiss fintech firm, has launched Sfr410m-equivalent of loan facilities, backing Warburg Pincus’s 35% investment in it, which values it at over Sfr1bn.

Burford Capital, the company that finances litigation, raised £175m with a bond issue on the London Stock Exchange’s Orderbook for Retail Bonds on Friday – one of the biggest deals since 2012.

After three years away, UK producer of grocery and sweets Premier Foods returned to the bond market with a £210m fiver year non-call one floater to join 2017’s sterling issuance comeback.

Transportation Partners and China National Chemical Corp will meet fixed income accounts for their respective dollar bonds, while names like Poly Culture Group Corp, Macrolink Culturaltainment Development Co, Oceanwide Holdings Co and Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co are planning to go offshore.

Chinese mobile phone maker Xiaomi, which sounded out lenders to refinance a syndicated loan raised in 2014, has sent out terms for the new facility to retail banks.

Wednesday’s sharp fall in the S&P 500, as the political storm around US president Donald Trump’s links with Russia intensified, has not turned into a market rout... yet. Equities bankers, indeed, are convinced it is a blip, saying investor appetite for stocks remains strong.

Several notable event-driven new money leveraged loans are set to come to market next month, but for now there is only a steady flow of repricings and small incremental deals.

CVC-owned German retailer Douglas has agreed to buy Limoni and La Gardenia Beauty, two Italian beauty and perfume firms from sponsor Orlando Management. It said on Thursday that it may issue new a term loan to fund the deal, joining a list of mid-cap firms with similar plans.

US cloud and physical data manager Iron Mountain’s €300m deal proved European investors can give US IT company debt a chance despite some troubled recent deals.

Conditions in Europe's leveraged finance market are arguably better than ever for issuers, with some measures of yields hitting historic lows. Many believe they cannot last. But try as they might, bankers cannot find enough issuers to bring deals, writes Max Bower.

Nordic low cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle will meet investors about a tap of its only euro bond on Monday. This time, it also plans a new €370m deal in Norwegian kroner.

Chinese banks are set to take up a bigger market share when it comes to financing M&A in 2017, building on their dominant presence in the Asian loan market last year. The stage is set for more collaboration between Mainland and international banks, according to panellists speaking at a leveraged and acquisition finance conference in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.