Loans and High Yield

Carpet and tile company Victoria returned to the bond market for its second outing in a month, raising another €250m of debt in a drive-by. Unlike its February issue, however, the new cash will mostly be used to push out its maturities, being earmarked to pay down its 2024s at a punchy make-whole spread of 50bp over Bunds.

China’s Guangdong Lingyi iTech Manufacturing Co, a company focused on making magnetic materials, electric motors and electric wires for automobiles, computers and mobile phones, has hit the market for a $150m loan.

Lone Star is refinancing and pricing the debt incurred for its buyout of BASF Construction Chemicals, one of the bridges hung during the first peak of the Covid crisis a year ago. The original deal required creativity to cross the line, plus a hefty private placement with GSO. Now, however, it looks set to slice up to 100bp off the euro margin, and more from the GSO deal.

Real estate developer China Aoyuan Group has closed a $225m-equivalent dual currency loan with nine banks in the syndicate.

After a couple of weeks of sluggish issuance during earnings season, there were three new European high yield bond mandates on Monday, including an innovative sustainability-linked issue from Greece’s Public Power Corporation — a step forward for the structure, which has been slow to catch on in the HY market.

Aluminium producer China Hongqiao Group has returned to the loan market for a $200m borrowing.

Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank has closed its debut offshore borrowing at $71m.

LondonMetric, the UK real estate investment trust, is marketing a private placement deal, according to market sources.

EG Group leant on private markets to raise cash for its purchase of the forecourts business of UK supermarket Asda and a chain of German petrol stations from OMV. The group is raising first and second lien loans, and, on February 26, privately placed a £675m Reg S-only bond.

Taiwanese semiconductor distribution company WT Microelectronics is plotting a return to the loan market after an absence of almost eight years. Bankers say more companies from the sector are likely to turn to loans in 2021 as strong growth in the industry propels opportunistic fundraising. Pan Yue reports.

Real Estate Investors, a UK commercial property REIT, has refinanced £51m of term loans, as the real estate sector continues to be one of the main drivers of European debt activity.

A significant widening of China South City Holdings’ dollar bonds issued in January forced the company to offer a juicier yield for its return to the international market this week.