Loans and High Yield

RBC Capital Markets has reorganised its European equity capital markets and corporate broking business following the decision of Darrell Uden to step down at the end of this month.

Investors have enthusiastically backed a €4.6bn financing package for Ineos Quattro, funding the integration of BP’s aromatics and acetyls business into the chemicals conglomerate. Strong demand allowed the company to raise more secured debt than expected, cutting funding costs, and strip out a bank-targeted term loan ‘A’ in favour of a bigger, cheaper, institutional term loan ‘B’.

Macau casino operator SJM Holdings generated a $10bn-plus book for its $1bn debut bond this week, despite tight pricing and the lack of US investors. Its credit profile, the transaction’s timing and a comprehensive marketing strategy worked in its favour.

Asia’s loans bankers are salivating over the prospects of working on the largest ever leveraged buyout loan from India. Blackstone is looking to exit from IT services company Mphasis in a deal that has seen plenty of interest from other private equity firms. Pan Yue reports.

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International went to the international debt market on Wednesday for a $500m deal.

Biogroup LCD is planning to refinance its full capital structure and tap the bond market for the first time after a string of recent debt-funded acquisitions. The French lab testing company was a notable casualty of the first wave of Covid-induced market chaos, forced to postpone its plans for a loan in March and then having to pay up when it returned for the financing in June.

Singaporean ride-hailing company Grab Holdings has boosted the size of its term loan B after receiving a strong response from the market, setting the stage for more Asian start-up firms to head to the US for financing.

Kaisa Group Holdings and BOC Aviation used swift taps to add more money to their coffers on Tuesday.

The ECB's attempts to curb leveraged lending are damaging, inconsistent, and come at exactly the wrong time

Four Chinese high yield property companies had the dollar market to themselves on Monday as a public holiday in the US kept other Asian issuers at bay. But the borrowers raised just modest amounts to tackle some of their refinancing needs.

Provident Square, a shopping mall in the North Point area in Hong Kong, is seeking a HK$1.4bn ($180m) loan for refinancing.

Many EU companies could do with capital beyond debt, according to the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (Afme). The trade body, in a report it produced alongside PwC, suggests encouraging the use of equity-adjacent products to fill balance sheet gaps from the coronavirus crisis.