Loans and High Yield

Vistra, the European corporate and fund services provider, has been marketing a $700m acquisition loan in New York and London, despite uncertain levfin markets.

This year has already proven to be a record one in terms of Chinese issuers taking advantage of the low yielding environment in Europe. But a pair of landmark trades over the past two weeks could drive issuance to scale even greater heights this year, writes Rev Hui.

Singaporean chipmaker Stats ChipPac has moved one step closer to restructuring its debt as it prepares for a takeover by Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology (JCET). And a $500m syndicated loan arranged by Barclays, DBS and ING is on the cards as part of the acquisition.

Vistra, the European corporate and fund services provider, is marketing its $700m acquisition loan in New York, after showing the deal to London investors on Wednesday.

High yield market participants expect plenty more activity before the summer break, undeterred by the absence, so far, of a long lasting solution to the Greek debt saga.

High volatility curbed activity in the Asia ex-Japan bond market again this week, as the Greek crisis and China's stock market crash kept issuers on the sidelines. As the deal drought continued, some market watchers said the summer lull had already started.

Alok Industries signed its $475m export performance bank guarantee-backed (EPBG) loan on June 30, with a total of eight banks committing to the transaction, following a four month syndication process.

Sri Lankan conglomerate John Keells has returned for its resort project financing, cutting the loan size by $50m to $395m in its second attempt. The original $445m facility was delayed after the incoming government in Sri Lanka changed rules on casino licences, which meant banks had to rethink the loan, taking into account the absence of casino revenues.

European high yield borrowers have pushed out many of their maturities beyond 2018 and face low needs to refinancing in the short term, according to a research paper published by Moody's on Wednesday.

Pemberton Capital Advisors, a UK asset manager, has won €547m of commitments for a fund that will lend to mid-market companies in the UK and Europe, adding another player to this increasingly crowded market.

Last week proved that companies could issue bonds in Europe if they wanted to — Danaher even raised €2.7bn. But this week shows that most of them don’t want to.

Bumi Armada has signed a loan and standby letter of credit facility worth a $755m with a group of seven banks. The money will be used to take out a bridge loan the company raised in March 2014 for the acquisition and installation of the Armada Kraken floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).