Loans and High Yield

Hong Kong Broadband Network is raising a HK$700m ($90m) loan to fund its acquisition of telecoms businesses Concord Ideas and Simple Click Investments.

Areva, the nuclear power construction firm 87% owned by the French government, has signed a €1.1bn bridge loan with six banks to “ensure the company’s liquidity for the 2016 fiscal year”.

One of Vietnam’s largest property developers Vingroup raised VN$3tr ($135.5m) from a dual-tranche offering on February 18 in what was only the second transaction in the country to be backed by the Credit Guarantee Investment Facility.

Pirelli will not refinance its €6.8bn acquisition bridge loan in the bond market as planned. A torpid high yield bond market has spooked the borrower away from capital markets and back to bank loans.

All eyes in the European leveraged finance market are focused on Solera’s $3.9bn debt package, the only deal in play.

The hidden depth of demand in Europe’s corporate bond market was made amply clear on Monday, when Vodafone trounced market expectations that it would issue a €3bn bond — itself a large and bullish transaction — by raising €6bn.

Nasdaq-listed Jumei International Holding is planning to finance its proposed take private transaction with a combination of loans and equity.

Kurt Geiger, the luxury UK shoe retailer, allocated its £150m all-senior acquisition debt at a notable margin even after its oversubscription.

The high yield market in Europe issued just $1bn of new deals in January, the lowest January figure since 2009.

Goldman Sachs had $10.6bn of credit exposure to the oil and gas industry as of December 2015, according to its annual regulatory filing.

The past week has brought no sign of leveraged loan new issuance in either the US or Europe, and several deals have struggled in syndication.

There was positive news for the European high yield secondary market last week as it posted its largest total return since October 2015.