Loans and High Yield

Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group will likely tap both the bond and loan markets to take out a bridge facility raised last year for the acquisition of retail giant Tesco’s Asia business.

Hong Kong-based energy firm Fortune Oil has returned to the loan market. It is seeking $400m-equivalent to refinance an old borrowing sealed in 2018.

Five Chinese corporate borrowers pushed into the debt market on Thursday, capping a frantic pace of deal flow this week that set a new record for Asia bond issuance.

Europe’s small and medium sized enterprises fear dark days ahead, as treasurers complain of banks withdrawing support and express concerns that central bank bond buying programmes favour the biggest and best capitalised companies. Mike Turner reports.

Adler Group, the German property firm, was the first European leveraged issue out of the gate in 2021 — a BB+ rated name tailor-made to tempt investment grade tourist money, which it managed in style, drawing a book of €4.9bn for a €1.5bn dual tranche issue on Thursday.

HSBC’s aims to boost market share in investment banking and rebalance towards Asia remain intact despite the resignation of one of its most senior lieutenants. But 2021 must be about execution, writes David Rothnie.

Bankers are readying a fat pipeline of new primary projects in leveraged finance, which are likely to meet a deep swell of investor demand — with P2Ps, carve-outs, acquisitions and secondary deals all ready to be distributed in the first quarter, thanks to a reviving M&A market in the second half of last year.

Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and UniCredit have launched the buyout funding for Carlyle’s €2bn purchase of Flender, a company making wind turbine gearing, from Siemens. On offer is a €1.045bn term loan 'B' in sustainable format, plus a €150m revolver and €125m guarantee facility.

Singaporean ride-hailing company Grab Holdings has added a dash of excitement to the loan market with plans to raise $750m from a new outing. Pan Yue reports.

Hellman & Friedman transferred Verisure, the Swedish alarm maker, into its ninth fund before Christmas, and has now launched a combined refinancing, dividend and consent deal to releverage the company. The first part of the package in the market is a €2bn loan deal led by Bank of America, with secured and unsecured bonds to follow.

Asia’s dollar bond market reopened this week with record issuance. Issuers are usually keen to get in ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday, but the start to 2021 has seen a rush of new primary deals like never before. Bankers said the supply will continue, although they expect it to slow down in the next few weeks. Morgan Davis reports.

UK stationery retailer Paperchase has submitted a notice of intent to appoint administrators, as it struggles to cope with the effects of lockdowns and disruption to Christmas sales.