Loans and High Yield

Michael Sherwood, co-CEO of Goldman Sachs International since 2005 and probably the most senior and highest profile investment banker in London, announced his retirement from the firm on Monday, after 30 years at the bank.

The repricing trend in the leveraged loan market is continuing, undisturbed by the onset of new money offerings, with many of the latest deals cutting costs and underpinning large dividend recapitalisations.

Online consumer lender 4Finance on Monday released initial price talk for an add-on to its €100m 2021 bond, as the market searches for short maturities before Christmas.

Two bankers have joined the loan syndication team of Agricultural Bank of China in Hong Kong in recent months, according to sources.

China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) is meeting investors for a euro bond this week, as it looks to raise funds to pay down debt taken for the acquisition of Italy's Pirelli.

MédiPôle Partenaires, the French private hospital group, has abandoned plans for an IPO after sponsor Bridgepoint decided to sell it to its competitor Elsan, owned by CVC, instead.

China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group and CEFC China Energy Company managed to drum up investor interest for their respective dollar bonds on Thursday despite a choppy market backdrop.

The leveraged finance market has been met this week by a raft of mergers and acquisitions, with four deals announced and several major leveraged buyouts poised for action. Considerable ground needs to be made up, however, if new paper is to offset the glut of repricings that have choked the market in recent months.

Spanish construction firm Obrascón Huarte Lain failed to calm investors' anxiety on Thursday, after the company suffered its third Moody’s rating downgrade since March.

French media technology firm Technicolor added yet another refinancing to the levloan market on Wednesday, with bank meetings scheduled on Friday for a €250m seven year term loan ‘B’.

There’s a price to pay for market uncertainty, as Asian dollar bond issuers found out this week. While some had to offer hefty premiums to entice investors, Country Garden was forced to pull its deal on Wednesday following lukewarm demand. As investors turn cautious, market participants say that short-dated paper and juicy yields will be key for the next few weeks. Morgan Davis reports.

Novelis is to refinance debt raised in the US with an Asia loan, becoming the second company in India’s Aditya Birla Group to replace its term loan B with Asian liquidity. With plenty of cost savings on offer, bankers expect more companies to take a similar approach to fundraising, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.