Loans and High Yield

Amadeus IT group, the Spanish travel technology company, and German logistics company Kion Group offered corporate bond investors the chance to pick up riskier debt on Thursday, as the demand for higher yielding securities drives large parts of the primary market.

French visual effects and digital services company Technicolor has finished a €330m recapitalisation as part of its efforts to exit from bankruptcy proceedings.

Altice France leapt straight into the market after Friday’s surprise announcement that owner and founder Patrick Drahi would be taking the company private. Research from Federated Hermes shows that the credit spread premium for a private company has dropped to virtually zero for the first time in 20 years.

Dutch DIY group Maxeda launched a refinancing this week which pushed up its rating, after it took out its 2022s with new 2026 bonds, taking any liquidity constraints for the triple-C rated chain firmly off the table. Despite the pandemic, the retailer has been successfully deleveraging, helped by a boom in home improvements during lockdown.

Schuldschein arranging banks have long claimed to be the market's gatekeepers as far as borrowers looking for access are concerned, rejecting lower quality credits to keep the standard high. As the market expanded in recent years and a richer variety of companies borrowed from it, this became a less convincing claim. But as the coronavirus pandemic rocks Europe, Schuldschein bankers say they have declined several requests from companies from risky sectors.

Singapore’s Farrer Park Co has become the latest company from Asia to tap the green loan market, raising a S$200m ($147m) facility from United Overseas Bank.

Hong Kong Broadband Network is enticing banks to a HK$5bn ($645m) loan by offering them a juicier margin than previously.

Swedish debt purchaser Intrum is in the market with a tap of its 4.875% 2025 unsecured notes, issued in July, intending to use the funds to part-pay its revolving credit facility. The starting size of the tap is €200m but the company has €746m outstanding on its RCF so could easily look to increase the deal size if it receives strong demand.

Times China Holdings raised $350m from a 5.5 year bond on Tuesday as a way to get ahead of its 2021 dollar maturities.

Sir Ronald Cohen, the venture capitalist who chairs the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, on Tuesday called on governments to mandate companies to publish impact-weighted accounts.

Altice France is marketing a €900m equivalent eight year bond across dollars and euros, coming hot on the heels of Friday’s announcement that Patrick Drahi, the billionaire owner of the telecoms group, was trying to take Altice Europe private.

GardaWorld, the Canadian security service company, has made a hostile £3bn offer for larger UK rival G4S, marking the second major bid for a UK company from a North American firm in less than a week.