Three European high-yield issues priced last week for a combined €930 million, as Italian packaging group Reno de Medici was forced to delay pricing of its planned €445 million five-year (non-call one year) issue of floating-rate notes amid market volatility on Friday, following the discovery of a new COVID-19 variant, omicron.
Although European bourses have this morning pared some of Friday's equity losses, bond markets still suggest a risk-off tone, with 10-year Bund yields up roughly 2 basis points from Friday's level. Credit remains under pressure too, with the iTraxx Europe Crossover at 290 this morning, 22 bps wide of Friday's open.
Four deals that were announced last week are still expected to price this week, although underwriters had not yet sent any pricing updates at the time of writing. On Nov. 26, Reno de Medici's five-year offering was pushed back to "early next week," while German pharmaceutical firm PHOENIX Pharmahandel GmbH & Co. KG this afternoon said it was shelving a planned €300 million, five-year deal until next year, having finished a series of investor calls last week.
As for the other transactions, Norwegian consumer-lending group B2Holding ASA concluded calls Nov. 26 for a planned €300 million five-year bond offering, while Brookfield-backed Altera Shuttle Tankers LLC was scheduled to hold a second global investor this afternoon to discuss plans for up to $250 million of four-year unsecured bonds.
Last Friday's sell-off has piled more pressure on the European high-yield pipeline, which bankers estimate holds roughly €10 billion of underwritten deals going into the new year. The bonds backing Clayton Dubilier & Rice's buyout of U.K. supermarket group Morrisons — which will come alongside a loan that is also yet to launch — are expected to total roughly £3.5 billion in secured and unsecured tranches, and would be targeting a narrow window of issuance if they were to price this year.
The secured and unsecured bond portions of the debt backing the buyout of T-Mobile Netherlands are also potentially set to price before Christmas, while other names expected include Sobi, Cerved, 888/William Hill and United Group.
