Loans and High Yield

The administrator of Peking University Founder Group’s debt has decided not to recognise the dollar bonds that came with a keepwell deed and deed of equity interest purchase undertaking, a move that can have a ‘major impact’ on the region’s debt market.

Emperor International Holdings snapped up $250m on Thursday from a new bond that included an exchange for its outstanding 2021 notes.

A $600m loan to support Baring Private Equity Asia’s take-private of Indian software firm Hexaware Technologies has been launched into general syndication, with three banks joining at the top level.

Singapore’s agribusiness company Wilmar International has raised a S$200m ($146m) bilateral loan from DBS using the country’s new interest rate benchmark.

Nomura has cut jobs in its investment banking business in Europe over the summer, following losses in leveraged finance, as its new chief executive eyes up other regions for growth, writes David Rothnie.

TeamViewer, the German remote connectivity software company, has amended bank facilities totalling €630m-equivalent, cutting 25bp-50bp off its margins after a spate of successes since its IPO last year.

Road King Infrastructure found strong support for its high yield dollar deal on Tuesday, gathering $2bn of orders for a $300m transaction.

Shandong Commercial Group Co followed its Chinese state-owned peers into the dollar market on Tuesday, but found limited support from investors for its $180m unrated bond.

Genting Hong Kong, a cruise ship operator under financial pressure due to the pandemic, held a meeting on Monday with its bank creditors to discuss a debt restructuring plan.

Compart Systems, a high precision metal components maker, has returned to the loan market to refinance an old borrowing from 2016, which was used to support its buyout by Platinum Private Equity.

Conditions are ripe for a resurgence in high yield bond and leveraged loan issuance, and market participants expect companies to start coming to the market as early as next week, with a variety of motivations.

Leveraged finance bankers in Asia are counting on the possible delisting of a host of Chinese companies from the US to give a fillip to the region’s dollar loan market this year. But bankers should temper their expectations.