Loans and High Yield

The up to $200m debut syndicated loan for the central bank of Laos has received a handful of commitments and more are expected before the deal wraps up in early December.

Videocon Hydrocarbon, which has activities in upstream oil and gas, is tapping the loan market for a $75m three year refinancing. An aggressive margin cut compared with the loan the company is refinancing has caught the eye of bankers, especially when its sector and the financial health of its parent is taken into account. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

Avago Technologies, the US semiconductor components maker, has increased the €500m tranche of its term loan ‘B’ to €900m on strong demand, another sign of the European leveraged loan market's competitiveness at the moment.

Asia’s primary debt market is set for a busy end to the month with another four issuers - Citic Envirotech, Korean Air Lines, Powerlong Real Estate Holdings and China Construction Bank Asia all looking to attract international investors with deals of their own on Thursday.

Bankers and investors on Wednesday said the failure of Veritas Technologies' $2.5bn bond deal — which was pulled along with an accompanying $3.3bn loan package on Tuesday — showed evidence of familiar weaknesses and errors in the European high yield market.

The weakness of the US leveraged finance market was brought sharply home to market participants on Tuesday, when the Carlyle Group, which is buying Veritas Technologies, a US data storage company, abandoned its attempt to raise $3.3bn of debt for the deal.

The weakness of the US leveraged finance market was brought home to market participants with a jolt on Tuesday, when the Carlyle Group, which is buying Veritas Technologies, a US data storage company, abandoned its attempt to raise $3.3bn of debt for the deal.

Hong Kong property company New World Development has picked banks to arrange investor meetings ahead of a proposed dollar offering.

TUS Holdings managed to raise $400m from its debut international bond this week, with anchor orders and private banks driving demand.

Investor demand for Asian debt was put to the test this week when Singapore's Stats ChipPac executed the region’s first non-Chinese high yield bond in more than three months.

Northgate Information Solutions, the holding company of NGA Human Resources, the HR software and payroll services provider, has announced a new capital structure following a full debt-to-equity swap of subordinated debt and £320m of new senior debt.

Fresenius SE, the German medical services company, received its second investment grade rating this week with a Moody's one notch upgrade on Monday. But there was little movement in the company's bond prices as market participants said the change had long been priced in.