Loans and High Yield

Though deals are not coming in thick and fast, a prospective issue from Altice International will keep the high yield market busy for the first few days of this week.

Bank of America has hired Uday Malhotra back from Goldman Sachs as head of leveraged finance origination in EMEA in London, while Eddie Martin, a managing director in the division, is relocating to the US.

Spanish waste management company Urbaser has postponed a €1.63bn prospective term loan ‘B’, with sources close to the deal blaming summer fatigue.

Chinese online travel agency Tongcheng-Elong Holdings is making its debut in the offshore loan market for $200m.

Acme Solar Holdings was one of the few borrowers in Asia to brave volatile market conditions on Thursday to sell its debut dollar bond.

Credit spreads for corporate borrowers from sectors that will benefit the most from reopening from lockdowns are drifting wider as coronavirus infections rise thanks to the spread of the delta variant. Industries already battered by the pandemic face a rough autumn in capital markets if there is another major global wave of the virus.

With PeopleCert and The Very Group closing high yield deals this week, the market is close to already trumping the yearly record of €103.2bn set in 2020. However, clear indications of a cooling period have pushed that moment into early August.

Adamo, a broadband company, has agreed a €600m sustainability-linked loan, it said on Wednesday. The cash will be used for refinancing and to fund the expansion of its fibre network into rural Spain.

Aligning with a global commercial bank has been on Jefferies’ agenda for several years, but its alliance with SMBC signals an intent to join the investment banking big league. By David Rothnie.

The Loan Market Association (LMA) and the European Leveraged Finance Association (ELFA) jointly released a best practice guide for sustainability-linked loans on Wednesday. The guidance is aimed specifically at the leveraged loan market and stresses the importance of agreeing on clearly defined key performance indicators ahead of announcing a SLL.

Chia Tai Animal Husbandry Investment (Beijing) Co, an onshore China entity of Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group, is borrowing its first offshore loan directly.

PeopleCert, a UK firm that specialises in certifying professional skills, is marketing €300m of senior secured high yield notes, to finance the acquisition of UK peer Axelos.