Loans and High Yield

Boparan, the UK food production and restaurant business, began marketing a £475m high yield bond on Monday. The deal follows Aston Martin, Lowell and PureGym, three refinancings done in the past month for companies under stress as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance and Revenue has raised a $370m syndicated loan from a group of 10 banks.

Chinese company Tianqi Lithium Corp has warned of a possible default on an acquisition loan amid a liquidity crunch, as it struggles to make a repayment by the end of November.

Shanghai and Hong Kong-headquartered property developer Cifi Holdings (Group) has made a quick return to the loan market. It is seeking $300m-equivalent.

Asia’s primary bond market started on a slow note on Monday, surprising debt bankers who were gearing up for strong deal flow. But recent announcements from the US over China investment, coupled with rising US Treasury yields and a default in the Mainland bond market, have given issuers some pause.

Government-backed Chinese issuers Shandong Hi-Speed Group Co, Wuhan Trading Group and a local government financing vehicle from Xi’an ventured to the offshore dollar bond market on Thursday. They raised a combined $880m.

The UK this week abandoned hope of winning a mutual deal on financial regulation equivalence with the EU, and did what many had expected: unilaterally granted European firms access to the UK’s market without gaining matching rights for UK firms. But although this looked like surrender, lawyers believe the UK might have the upper hand.

Jefferies has enjoyed a record year in European investment banking, powered by equity capital markets, writes David Rothnie.

Sterling supply in high yield and leveraged loans has proved a rare sight since the 2016 Brexit vote, with UK-based borrowers preferring to seek euro funding where possible. But this week saw four deals in the currency — a relative bonanza.

The Covid casino has produced winners and losers among Europe’s high yield gaming firms, with lottery firm Sazka securing a fat equity cheque from Apollo, while Codere has some worried that its restructuring, wrapped up in October, did too little to cut its debt burden.

Thames Water’s holding company launched a sub-investment grade bond and tender offer to push out its 2022 maturity, announcing the new bond as markets firmed up on Monday.

Market euphoria following news of Pfizer’s potential Covid vaccine created a perfect window for lead banks Barclays and Jefferies to sell out of a bridge loan for UK fitness chain PureGym, which they had held since underwriting it in January — one of the last pre-Covid acquisition loans yet to come to market.