Bank Loan Report articles from December 2003

Bank Loan Report archives from December 2003

Institutional Crowd Wants In On GE Capital-Led Radio Deal.
December 8, 2003... Institutional investors were knocking at the door of a new $185 million acquisition-financing package for MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting last week, but lead agent bank GE Capital wasn't letting anyone in. At least not yet. The credit,...

Fitch Questions CDS' Predictive Value.
December 8, 2003... Over the past few years, since energy and other companies began their credit implosions, market players and especially shorter-term traders have looked to credit default swap spreads as bellwethers of future borrower default. A just-released...

WL Ross: Hedge Funds Reveal Opportunities.
December 8, 2003... For all his success and recognition as the best-known turnaround financier in the US, you might be forgiven for thinking that restructuring companies were by now a straightforward and relatively easy process for Wilbur Ross, chairman and CEO of...

GE Capital, UBS To Wrap Up United Agri Products' ABL Line...
December 8, 2003... GE Capital and UBS are targeted to close out the $500 million, five-year asset-based revolver for United Agri Products by the end of the month with GE holding a good portion of the debt, a banker said. The deal, which backs the US and...

Levi Strauss Ratings Fall Further After Hiring Restructuring Firm.
December 8, 2003... Levi Strauss & Co. took another blow to its ratings last week from Fitch Ratings after the company announced it had hired a restructuring firm and replaced its CFO with one of the firm's consultants. The downgrade follows a previous downgrade...

S&P Rolls Out Secured Loan Recovery Ratings Scale.
December 15, 2003... Amid a market all too familiar with defaults, there is now a new gauge for investors to anticipate how much principal they may get out of an investment after a default takes place. This gauge is called a recovery rating and, as of last Tuesday,...

Lenders Pan Looming CDO Guidelines.(collateralized debt obligations )
December 15, 2003... Newly-modified accounting guidelines for when firms must consolidate collateralized debt obligations in their financial statements may be imminent. Meanwhile, recently submitted comment letters plead for more time and address lingering issues...

Hedge Fund-Filled Deals May Spell Trouble.
December 15, 2003... Hedge funds and other nontraditional lenders became regular players in the syndicated loan market in 2003, especially in so-called rescue deals, and they are expected to continue investing in loans next year, despite tighter spreads. The types...

Bear Stearns Shops Paper Co. Add-On.
December 15, 2003... Bear Stearns is in the market with a $56 million add-on for Appleton Papers. The additional institutional debt will be combined with the Appleton, Wis.-based paper company's existing C loan into a new $140 million D loan, a banker said. Pricing...

CDO Volume Down for 2003; Overall Outlook Stable for 2004.(collateralized debt obligations)
December 15, 2003... What a difference a year makes, particularly regarding structured finance. After cycling through a record wave of downgrades in 2002, the CDO market has finally begun to show some ratings stability. On the new issue side, however, it looks...

S&P: Despite Declining Defaults, Recovery Rate Outlook Still Dim.
December 15, 2003... Will recovery rates improve in the environment of declining defaults? This was the hopeful question posed by Standard & Poor's managing director, David Keisman, at last week's S&P Bank Loan Seminar. Unfortunately, Keisman's conclusion...

IP Innovations to Guarantee Loans Backed by Intellectual Property.(IP Innovations Financial Services)
December 15, 2003... With a new angle on monetizing intellectual property, IP Innovations Financial Services recently scored $28 million in start-up capital from Principal Financial Group, for the purpose of guaranteeing loans secured by IP assets. IPI intends...

S&P Expert Panel: Lending Risks Now May Bite Later.
December 15, 2003... Rising leverage, aggressive pricing, the composition of lenders in the market, and the adequacy of issuer information disclosure in the bank debt arena - these are just a few of the topics discussed in last week's panel on institutional and...