Loans and High Yield

DebtXplained, the leveraged finance covenant specialist, has hired a senior banker from Lloyds — and says that more recruitment of capital markets bankers is to come.

Philippine homebuilder Vista Land & Lifescapes opted to tap its outstanding bond rather than sell a new deal on Wednesday due to challenging market conditions. Although pricing wasn’t as tight as expected, offshore investors were still keen due to its scarcity value and a lack of other primary supply.

South Korea’s Kookmin Bank is looking to price its second covered bond on Thursday, while HNA Group is out to tap its existing dollar notes that were issued two months ago.

Infinitas, the educational publisher, has set final terms on the €435m senior secured debt package backing its acquisition by Compass Partners from Bridgepoint.

Kurt Geiger, the luxury UK shoe retailer, is holding bank meetings on Friday for a £150m buyout facility backing its £245m acquisition by Cinven from Sycamore Partners.

Another week, another dearth of primary issuance in the European corporate bond market.

The Asian market finally saw some signs of activity on Wednesday with China Development Bank and Vista Land & Landscapes opening taps for their respective dollar bonds.

Zenit Sgr, the Milan-based investment fund, is working on the underwriting of a minibond by a listed Italian media company that could issue as early as February, sources have said.

Austrian parking facilities developer Best in Parking walked into a frozen bond market on Tuesday with a €90m unrated bond, that was a tougher than expected sell to its domestic investor base.

B&B Hotels, France’s third largest budget hotels group, held bank meetings on Tuesday backing its €800m buyout by PAI Partners from the Carlyle Group and Montefiore Investment.

The Chinese property sector has once again found itself in the headlines for the wrong reasons with Future Land Development Holdings saying on Friday that its chairman was being investigated by the authorities. While there was the inevitable bout of panic selling, the short time it took for things to stabilise shows a maturing market that is fast getting used to the complexities of the industry.

RBS's former head of Asia Pacific loan markets, Aditya Agarwal, joined Maybank on Monday as the regional head of loan syndication, according to sources.