Loans and High Yield

Infopro, a business information company owned by Towerbrook, is offering a new bond this week to clean up some coronavirus pandemic-driven features of its capital structure, including paying back state-guaranteed debt and its drawn revolver. The new bond will also push out debt maturities through by repaying a 2022 bond.

Gategroup, the Swiss airline hospitality company, has negotiated with lenders to extend the maturity on its syndicated loan facilities as part of a major debt restructuring for the Covid-battered firm.

High yield property company Jingrui Holdings raised $240m on Monday as part of an exchange and new money exercise.

Hedge funds have started to take a keen interest in the Schuldschein market, but restructuring laws in Germany set to come into effect in January will stop them before they truly get started.

Renault, the French car maker, issued on Monday its first bond since taking a €5bn state-backed loan. Investors piled into the deal.

Boparan, the UK food production and restaurant business, began marketing a £475m high yield bond on Monday. The deal follows Aston Martin, Lowell and PureGym, three refinancings done in the past month for companies under stress as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance and Revenue has raised a $370m syndicated loan from a group of 10 banks.

Chinese company Tianqi Lithium Corp has warned of a possible default on an acquisition loan amid a liquidity crunch, as it struggles to make a repayment by the end of November.

Shanghai and Hong Kong-headquartered property developer Cifi Holdings (Group) has made a quick return to the loan market. It is seeking $300m-equivalent.

Asia’s primary bond market started on a slow note on Monday, surprising debt bankers who were gearing up for strong deal flow. But recent announcements from the US over China investment, coupled with rising US Treasury yields and a default in the Mainland bond market, have given issuers some pause.

Government-backed Chinese issuers Shandong Hi-Speed Group Co, Wuhan Trading Group and a local government financing vehicle from Xi’an ventured to the offshore dollar bond market on Thursday. They raised a combined $880m.

The UK this week abandoned hope of winning a mutual deal on financial regulation equivalence with the EU, and did what many had expected: unilaterally granted European firms access to the UK’s market without gaining matching rights for UK firms. But although this looked like surrender, lawyers believe the UK might have the upper hand.