Bank Loan Report articles from April 2008

Bank Loan Report archives from April 2008

Cautious Banks Hunt For New Investors.
April 7, 2008... While all may be quiet on the M&A front, investment banks are working both to secure greater protections for themselves through covenants and new provisions and to lure new investors to leveraged finance. The league tables for Q1...

CLO Issuance Takes Baby Steps In Q1.
April 7, 2008... Camulos Capital closed Camulos Loan Vehicle 1 last Wednesday, kicking off the second quarter with positive news in the way of new issuance. The $731 million cash flow CLO, which is the first CLO for the manager, offered triple-A to double-B...

RBS, Deutsche To Market $725 M Term Loan B.(Contract between Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and Deutsche Bank AG (Frankfurt, Germany) for credit facility)(Coinmach's acquisition by Babcock & Brown)
April 7, 2008... The Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank plan to market a $1.2 billion credit facility, which includes a $725 million term loan B, for Coinmach in the coming weeks, according to sources. Price talk is at Libor plus 300 bps, with an OID yet...

If Clear Channel Were His Turf, What Would Tony Say?
April 7, 2008... The war of words being fought by the private equity sponsors and six banks over the financing of the Clear ChannelCommunications buyout got me to thinking about The Sopranos. You know, disputes over money owed and contracts being honored (or...

Middle Market Dominates Europe in Q1.
April 7, 2008... It used to be that investors could expect a substantial number of new deals in the first quarter of the year-transactions that banks, closing their books for the year in Q4, would purposely choose to hold over for the January to March period....

No Easy Remedies for Leveraged Loan Market.
April 7, 2008... Waiting to see the doctor is never fun. Old magazines and coughing strangers are bad enough, but the anticipation about the diagnosis is the worst. During the first quarter of 2008, everyone in the leveraged finance markets was waiting for a...

JPMorgan Shops Local Insight, GE Tweaks Venture Debt.
April 7, 2008... JPMorgan is shopping a $365 million credit facility for Local Insight Regatta Holdings, a Hudson, Ohio-based yellow pages publisher. The debt package, which launched last week, consists of a $335 million term loan B and a $30 million revolver,...

You Can Bet On More Debt For Debt.(contract between Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. and bondholders)(Financial report)
April 14, 2008... A recent debt exchange by Abitibi Consolidated illustrates what may become more commonplace this year: last-minute agreements with bondholders that allow companies to pay back debt with more debt. But whether noteholders go for these...

It's Like Rain On Your Wedding Day ... Or Not.
April 14, 2008... A certain temptation exists to label it "ironic" when a group of private equity firms, including Apollo Management, Blackstone Group and TPG, buy up $12 billion in discounted buyout debt (some of it their own). After all, LBO shops...

Firms Happy Being Small Fish In Big Pond.
April 14, 2008... As shareholders and the government put large investment banks under the grill of a scorching spotlight, smaller firms are finding opportunities in the shade. One of those is Dallas-based ORIX Leveraged Finance, and it has a counterpart on the...

Goldman Sells Chrysler Loans At 63 Cents.
April 14, 2008... A '63 Chrysler is a collector's item that is priceless to some. But for an underwriter hawking leveraged loans, 63 doesn't elicit the same endearment as a price.In an effort to rid itself of its share of hung LBO debt, Goldman Sachs has...

Macrovision Launches, Delphi Plunges.
April 14, 2008... JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch last week began marketing a $500 million term loan B for Santa Clara, Calif.-based digital media licensing company Macrovision, just after a deal for Troy, Mich.-based auto parts supplier Delphi broke down. "The...

Berry Plastics Prices Loan In Bond's Clothing.
April 21, 2008... In an effort to get deals done on the primary markets, underwriters have been trying to appeal to different classes of investors. Last Wednesday, Berry Plastics priced $680.6 million in floating-rate high yield bonds that were structured in a...

Confidence Grows As Banks Pass The Ball.
April 21, 2008... Unless it's cholesterol or blood pressure, people are usually disappointed when they see a line on a chart head south. Another exception in the world of leveraged finance is the loan pipeline. The forward calendar has declined to $107...

Deutsche's Byrne Sees Lev Finance Glass Half Full.
April 21, 2008... Last week, Bank Loan Report sister publication IDD spoke with Richard Byrne, the newly appointed CEO of Deutsche Bank Securities and the firm's co-head of global capital markets, about the state of the leveraged finance markets, initial public...

Kinetic Hits Market With Loans And Bonds.
April 21, 2008... Ebitda in excess of $500 million in 2007, and Kinetic expects to rapidly pay down debt. The company's outlook is stable, and its probability-of-default rating is Ba3, according to Moody's. In establishing an initial hedge of the convertible...

Credit Suisse Launches PITG; GE, Wachovia Amend Deals.
April 21, 2008... Credit Suisse Friday launched a $720 million credit facility for Pittsburgh-based casino operator PITG Gaming. The debt package consists of a $370 million first-lien term loan, a $250 million second-lien term loan and a $100 million revolver....

Primary Activity Climbs; Prices, Not So Much.
April 21, 2008... Spring looks to be thawing out the primary high yield bond market, with new issuance picking up this month while prices remain low, circumstances that are pleasing investors. The first half of April has seen a spurt of activity on the high...

Well-Heeled CDO Managers Stand Ground.
April 28, 2008... At the onset of the CDO troubles this past summer, market participants predicted that tough times would weed out the established players from the fly-by-night shops. As the CLO market begins to pick up, it appears the predictions might be...

You Can't Keep Lev Loans Down, Kind Of Like Hillary.(Report)
April 28, 2008... Furiously compelling (and long) as the campaign has been, I somehow have neglected to employ any sort of clever presidential simile or metaphor in any of my previous columns. I'd like to believe that, as an American, I'm due at least one. And...

For This Texas Oil & Gas Co., There Will Be A Term Loan.
April 28, 2008... Investors, are you thirsty for an energy-focused debt milk shake? Get out your long straws. UBS and Goldman Sachs in a few months will issue a $600 million term loan B for Houston-based oil and gas driller Grey Wolf, according to the energy...

Retail Headed For The Bankruptcy Bin.
April 28, 2008... The recent move by retailer Linens 'n Things to defer a quarterly interest payment of approximately $16.1 million may not only have started the company on a path to bankruptcy, but it likely also signals trouble for the retail industry in...

KapStone Debt In The Works; Five Deals Tweaked.
April 28, 2008... Bank of America and LaSalle plan to launch a $585 million credit facility for KapStone Paper and Packaging, a Northbrook Ill.-based producer of kraft paper, which is used in grocery bags and packaging, among other things. The proceeds from the...

Cheap Eats No Bargain For Investors.
April 28, 2008... Investors in casual-dining restaurant chains may want to ask for the check. These businesses have the highest probability of breaching their debt covenants, higher than companies in the automotive and construction sectors, according to recent...

M&A From Russia, With Debt.
April 28, 2008... Anyone who thought that M&A activity in Europe had met its demise ought to take a look eastward. Russia is where the action is, and according to people who follow the country and the surrounding region, that's where it's going to stay for the...