Loans and High Yield

Halkbank - ArcelorMittal - Yapi Kredi - Xella - Nordic Cinema

Alliance Automotive, the French-UK car parts distributor, was back in the high yield market on Wednesday selling a €50m tap of its only bond, issued last year.

Rating: B2

Det Norske Oljeselskap, the Norwegian oil exploration company, has obtained a $500m revolving credit facility from seven banks and is considering issuing bonds.

Mining company Petra Diamonds closed a successful $300m debut deal on Wednesday — the only one from the CEEMEA region this week in dollars or euros. The bond was trading well in the secondary market on Thursday with the order book having drawn over $1.1bn.

Nordic Cinema Group, a cinemas operator, is preparing to launch around €350m of acquisition loans in Swedish kronor and euros, to back its buyout by Bridgepoint.

Delachaux, the French maker of railway tracks, is today hitting the deadline for commitments on its €690m-equivalent loan repricing, an aggressive deal that is nevertheless likely to fly.

Loan bankers expect their market to keep steaming ahead with little impact from the UK general election, but the possibility of an EU referendum would be a real concern.

China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group raised $200m from its inaugural bond, with the issuer choosing to pay up to compensate for a lack of credit rating. The tactic was effective in getting the deal done, although observers said the bond’s subsequent secondary market performance indicated that it might have paid over the odds.

Vietnamese companies have made a splash in the loans market in recent months, with borrowers from the banking and property sectors heading offshore for funding. And they have managed to raise their latest financings at a much lower cost than previously, taking advantage of abundant liquidity and an improving domestic macroeconomic outlook, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

Two Chinese lenders will supply a $800m loan to back the acquisition of US-headquartered digital imaging company OmniVision Technologies by a consortium of Chinese investors.

China Banking Corp (Chinabank), BFI Finance, and China Universal Leasing are the latest financial institutions to tap the offshore syndicated loan market. The three fundraisings continue the trend of companies looking to capitalise on the difference in borrowing costs overseas and lending rates at home.