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Hong Kong Tian Yuan Manganese International Trade, which sent out invitations for a $150m loan this week, is now understood to have cancelled the transaction after second thoughts on the impact of a weaker renminbi.

Tata Steel’s attempt to cut pricing on a $1.5bn portion of a loan completed in 2014 has met resistance from lenders, who are concerned about the outlook of the company’s sector. With the borrower also understood to be looking at tweaking covenants, the transaction is proving to be a test of client-bank relationships. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

Estonian power company Eesti Energia opened books on a new euro transaction on Thursday morning, following the deadline for a tender offer on its outstanding bonds the day before.

The Export-Import Bank of China (Chexim) introduced a new structure into Asia’s debt market this week, becoming the first issuer to sell bonds backed by loans. Some investors shied away from the unfamiliar format, but the Chinese policy bank raised $1bn from the dual tranche offering.

Financial markets have largely ignored the possibility that Catalonia could become independent from Spain. But for the Catalan government, that is no longer a possibility, but a virtual certainty — with huge implications for Spanish debt.

The China foreign exchange trade system (CFETS) published a list of the first institutions to be granted access to the Chinese interbank bond market (CIBM) since a streamlined programme was introduced in July.

Hong Kong Exchanges (HKEx) CEO Charles Li said earlier this week that a stock market rout in China had made talks of expanding the mutual market access initiatives, including the expansion of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect to Shenzhen, more difficult.

Respondents to a new survey by Standard Chartered Hong Kong branch (StanChart HK) are expecting further devaluation of the RMB, but an even larger proportion said they would continue to hold or even expand the quota of RMB-denominated assets in their portfolios.

A $165m triple-tranche loan for CVC-sponsored Asia Education Investment has been allocated, with three lenders joining during general syndication. The response was considered muted by some but the leads said they only had a limited portion to sell down to begin with.

The normally fast world of MTN bankers took a rare moment to slow down at this year’s Discover Iceland — as they found themselves moving at a glacial pace.

This week’s encouraging run of equity block trades continues this evening (Wednesday September 9) with a sale of 10% of Inmobiliaria Colonial, the Spanish property company, worth about €190m.

SGL Carbon, the German manufacturer of products from carbon, issued a successful €167m convertible bond on Wednesday morning, and launched the repurchase of an existing CB.