Loans and High Yield

An accounting standard was launched on Wednesday that could prove a major step forward in how banks and investors calculate their contributions to climate change, and their progress towards net zero emissions.

NRG Energy has priced a roughly $3.8bn five tranche bond offering — including the first ever sustainabilty-linked notes from a US issuer — to finance its acquisition of North American energy retailer Direct Energy.

Symon Drake-Brockman, the founder and managing partner of European direct lender Pemberton Asset Management, thinks that the US direct lending market has matured to such an extent that further growth is tricky, whereas Europe still has fruitful opportunities ahead.

When the Covid-19 crisis hit in the spring, it looked like a golden opportunity for private credit funds. But the window shut as quickly as it opened, preventing the hungry funds from deploying much of their dry powder. But their moment may have finally arrived.

Central China Real Estate paid up for its $300m return to the bond market on Tuesday, navigating weaker investor sentiment to get its deal over the finish line.

Blackstone is working on the financing for a potential acquisition of India’s Piramal Glass. Although the deal is still in its early stages, international banks are facing competition from cheap onshore liquidity. Pan Yue reports.

Ben Smyth, the whistleblower and former debt capital markets banker who took UBS to court, has been hired as an investment officer by the litigation funder Therium Capital.

Infopro, a business information company owned by Towerbrook, is offering a new bond this week to clean up some coronavirus pandemic-driven features of its capital structure, including paying back state-guaranteed debt and its drawn revolver. The new bond will also push out debt maturities through by repaying a 2022 bond.

Gategroup, the Swiss airline hospitality company, has negotiated with lenders to extend the maturity on its syndicated loan facilities as part of a major debt restructuring for the Covid-battered firm.

High yield property company Jingrui Holdings raised $240m on Monday as part of an exchange and new money exercise.

Hedge funds have started to take a keen interest in the Schuldschein market, but restructuring laws in Germany set to come into effect in January will stop them before they truly get started.

Renault, the French car maker, issued on Monday its first bond since taking a €5bn state-backed loan. Investors piled into the deal.