Jaguar Land Rover calls off bonds issue after coronavirus troubles

Jaguar Land Rover will not be raising money by issuing a US dollar bond after the coronavirus outbreak led to potential investors demanding too high an interest rate to compensate for the outbreak of the illness, which has severely effected its supply chains.

The company had Merrill, a wealth management company that's part of Bank of America, approach US investors last week. It had interest in an eight-year bond in the seven percent yield range, according to Automotive News Europe, citing anonymous sources close to the matter.

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However, with the outbreak of the coronavirus severely hampering the company's supply chains and causing its Chinese sales to drop, the investment plan is now off.

However a spokeswoman for Jaguar told Bloomberg News that there was no plan in place with the investors from the off.

"The meetings with US investors were planned as a non-deal roadshow," she said, adding that Jaguar Land Rover could "could decide to issue a new bond anytime it thinks conditions are favourable".

Jaguar Land Rover is already schedules to pay just under £1 million in bonds over the next two years, and doesn't need to raise any more funds in the short-term. 

It sold over £660 million of debt last November, and raised a further £166 million just one month later.