MUFG

The US market slowed down after the previous week’s blockbuster but a handful of smaller trades were sufficient to take December's haul to a record. Four corporate trades worth $2.8bn pushed issuance to $43bn, making it the busiest December ever.

South Africa’s Standard Bank has signed a $700m three year term loan, while Nigeria headquartered Africa Finance Corporation looks set to close general syndication of its $300m deal by Friday.

A $3.2bn piece of Tata Steel’s $5.6bn multi-trancher has attracted a whopping $1.089bn in commitments during general syndication. The response follows a successful senior phase, which saw eight banks pile in.

Grupo Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) of Spain is in talks with a group of banks to refinance €2.2bn of debt, and plans to complete the deal in January 2015.

Syndication for the $3.2bn portion of Tata Steel’s $5.6bn borrowing has seen about 13 banks join with nearly $940m in commitments, said a banker. Allocations for the deal are due to be out soon.

Kingboard Laminates Holdings has returned to the market for an HK$3bn ($386.8m) refinancing of a deal from 2010. The company is paying a premium over its last fundraising, which it sealed at the beginning of the year, as it has been a frequent borrower and many banks already have an exposure to it.

Pelabuhan Indonesia II’s $1bn loan that opened into general syndication in October, has attracted commitments worth $1.298bn from 45 banks.

Spanish travel systems company Amadeus IT Holding priced a €400m three year bond on Tuesday. Demand was strong, with the no-grow transaction nearly six times oversubscribed.

South Africa’s FirstRand bank was the latest in a long line of pulled deals from CEEMEA on Thursday when it pulled a five year dollar bond on Thursday after announcing initial price thoughts.

Syndication for the $3.2bn portion of Tata Steel’s $5.6bn borrowing is progressing well, with the deal already receiving $750m worth of commitments, said a banker. Nine banks have committed so far and a handful more are expected to join before close.

Reliance Jio Infocomm’s $1.5bn dual tranche loan that opened in September has been allocated among 26 lenders, 11 of which joined during general syndication. Thin pricing did not stop Taiwanese, Japanese and Middle Eastern lenders from piling into the deal, as it gave them a chance to form a relationship with India’s biggest private sector company.

Commodity trader Mercuria signed its latest refinancing on November 18, with 28 banks joining during general syndication. Although the loan was oversubscribed by about 60%, Mercuria decided to cap the borrowing at its launch size of $1bn.