Loans and High Yield

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.

China Oriental Group has announced a consent solicitation as well as plans to buy back all or a portion of its existing bonds, following a profit warning sent to its shareholders.

Lippo Karawaci has announced the minimum yield for a new dollar-denominated senior offering due 2023, as it aims to switch holders out of a 2019 bond into a longer four year deal.

Action, the Benelux discount non-food retailer, had bank meetings in London on Tuesday for its €1.2bn all-senior dividend recapitalisation.

The opening shot for the race to save Abengoa from bankruptcy came on Monday from Alvarez & Marsal, the restructuring firm, and its plan to half the Spanish renewable energy company’s corporate debt to €4bn ­— now the board and creditors must approve the scheme before March 28.

LGC, the UK life sciences company being bought by KKR, has tightened price guidance on its €350m euro term loan ‘B’ and accelerated its deadline.

Tata Power subsidiary Bhira Investments, which has picked six lenders to arrange a refinancing of a $460m facility, is stretching the tenor of the new loan to five years.

Chinese hospital group Phoenix Healthcare has terminated an undrawn $150m loan raised in February 2015 due to the instability in the foreign exchange rate.

Hua Han Health Industry Holdings is eyeing the international bond market for the first time, having mandated one bank to work on a dollar-denominated deal.

European high yield trading depends closely on the US secondary market, where liquidity has declined as risk-aversion has deepened in recent months.

Only one lender is understood to have made a commitment to join China Shengmu Organic Milk’s $120m three year facility, which has been in syndication since December.