Loans and High Yield

Moody’s has bought Bureau van Dijk, the Dutch business intelligence firm, from EQT for €3bn, and is set to finance the deal with offshore cash and new debt.

Verallia, the French bottle maker, requested a repricing of its €1.375bn term loan ‘B’ this week, having repriced it only in December.

The European subsidiary of CNH, the US agricultural machinery company formerly called Case New Holland, launched a benchmark euro high yield bond on Monday, as yields in the market hit new all-time lows.

National Highways Authority of India grabbed a Rp30bn ($465.88m) five year Masala bond on Thursday, despite the offshore rupee market not getting the enthusiasm that issuers want.

An up to $1bn facility for the Sri Lankan sovereign has hit general syndication, about three months after the borrower mandated six banks for the deal.

Hotelbeds held a lender call on Tuesday for a €325m term loan add-on, backing its carve-out of GTA from Kuoni Travel, amid market conditions ever propitious for refinancings.

A recent improvement in the prices that shipping companies command may have come too late for bondholders of Rickmers, the 183 year-old Hamburg shipping company. They are set to endure losses as the borrower attempts to make it to 184.

Primary loan syndication activity dropped sharply in April, with many loans desks in Asia not receiving a single invitation for weeks on end. In the absence of flow in primary, many participating banks are increasingly looking at the secondary market to cope with the slowdown, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

A Hong Kong-based banker in the Asia Pacific leveraged finance team of HSBC has resigned, and is understood to be heading to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, according to sources.

Pemberton has hired a veteran leveraged finance banker as a new partner in its origination team, as it further builds out its private debt platform in Europe.

Hong Kong developer Cheung Kong Property Holdings (CKP) and Chinese company Huachen Energy Co both opened books for new dollar deals on Thursday.

PSP Investments, the Canadian pension investment manager, has expanded its operations with the launch of a European hub, and wants to invest increasingly in private debt and real estate.