Bank Loan Report articles from December 2005

Bank Loan Report archives from December 2005

Investors Show Interest In Hertz $2B Institutional Term Loan.
December 5, 2005... Bank loan investors got a taste of another big-name leveraged buyout (LBO) deal as the multi-billion dollar bank facility to finance the leveraged buyout (LBO) of Hertz Corp. hit the market last week. Last Tuesday, Deutsche Bank, which is...

Manufacturing CFOs Expect More M&A.
December 5, 2005... Based on the expectations of about 600 CFOs of US manufacturing companies, the level of M&A and leveraged buyout (LBO) activity in the sector is poised to pick up next year. About three out of 10 CFOs participating in a recent survey by Bank of...

Cycle Turns For Homebuilding Sector.
December 5, 2005... The five-year bull market in housing has understandably been good to the homebuilding sector. The PHLX housing sector index, the best measure of sector-wide equity performance, only goes back three years, but in that short period it jumped to a...

Meeting Set For Thursday To Sell Macau Casino Deal To US Banks.(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Citigroup are set to begin the first round of the syndication process for a $2.5 billion facility for Venetian Macau Limited, a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands Corp. A bank meeting is set for Tuesday in Macau...

Compass In Market For $450M Facility.(Compass Minerals Group Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Last Tuesday, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs held a bank meeting to launch syndication of a $450 million refinancing deal for Compass Minerals Group. The facility is split between a $100 million revolver due 2010 and a $350 million term loan due...

UBS Shops Axia Loans.(axia group inc)(ubs ag)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Sole lead UBS is in the market with $175 million in bank loans for Axia, proceeds of which will be used to back Aurora Capital Group's acquisition of Axia Holdings. The deal includes a $25 million revolver due 2010 and a $150 million term loan...

Goldman, WestLB Sell Wolf Hollow Credit.(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Last Thursday, joint lead arrangers Goldman Sachs and WestLB hit the market with a four-tranche bank facility in connection with the $327 million acquisition of the Wolf Hollow power plant by Stark Investments and Sequent Power Partners. The...

Banks Cut Pricing On Mafco Institutional Piece.(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Last week, JPMorgan and Bear Stearns trimmed pricing on the $110 million term loan for Mafco Worldwide Corp. to Libor plus 200 bps from an initial Libor plus 225 bps, according to a source. Proceeds from the B+/B1 rated loan will go, in part,...

Toys R' Us ABL TL Hits Secondary.(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... The downsized asset-based term loan (ABL) for Toys R' Us hit the secondary market last week, breaking to trade right around par. One secondary market source quoted the loan in the 100 to 100.25 context last Wednesday evening after the loan hit...

Scotia Boosts Pricing On Pre-Paid Loans.(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... An unfavorable jury verdict is not only requiring Pre-Paid Legal Services to pay $9.9 million in punitive damages, it also is causing the company to pay a significantly higher interest margin on its proposed credit facility than it had...

JPM, Wachovia Sell CCC Info Loans.(J.P. Morgan Securities Inc)(Wachovia Securities Inc)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Last Monday, joint lead arrangers JPMorgan and Wachovia Securities hit the market with a $300 million credit facility in connection with the buyout of CCC Information Services Group by Investcorp, the parent company of SourceMedia, which...

Calyon Grows Loan Group.(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Last week, Calyon announced three new hires to its structured finance syndication team in London. Joining the bank's leverage syndications team as an associate director is Elizabeth Huyssen van Kattendijke, who most recently worked as a manager...

IACPM Elects Marcotte, Ormezzano.(international association of credit portfolio managers)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Bank of America's Ivan A. Marcotte and BNP Paribas' Veronique Ormezzano were elected to one-year terms as chair and vice chair, respectively, of the International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers, the organization said in a statement...

Ratings Movers: Katun Up On Repay/Calpine Down After Ousters.(Katun Corp)
December 5, 2005... Holders of Katun Corp.'s bank debt can expect a higher level of recovery as a result of the company's recent repayment of more than $50 million in bank debt, noted Standard & Poor's in a report last week. In turn, the rating agency upgraded its...

Leveraged Lending Today Resembles Mortgage Market Of 1990s.
December 5, 2005... by Mark Boyadjian, head of Franklin Templeton Investments' Franklin Floating Rate Debt Group, and Tyler Chan, director of research for the Franklin Floating Rate Debt Group On October 14, Dr. Edward Altman, professor of finance at New York...

Euro Cable Sees Renaissance In Leveraged Finance Market.
December 12, 2005... It was the sector everyone loved to hate. But from the end of 2004 onward, the European cable industry has been a prolific issuer of high yield debt, making good use of both the bond market and the syndicated loan market. Investors in both...

IACPM Releases Sound Practices' Guide.(International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers )
December 12, 2005... Managing a loan or bond portfolio is a far cry from what it used to be, thanks to recent market developments such as the rapid growth of credit derivatives and increased liquidity in the loan market. In fact, the changing ways of the credit...

UBS Taps Juge, Woo To Unite Businesses.(David Juge and Warren Woo )
December 12, 2005... In recognition of the many leveraged buyout (LBO) and debt financing business opportunities that often come hand in hand, UBS announced last week that it has tapped David Juge and Warren Woo as joint heads of global leveraged finance. These...

Capital Auto Scraps Bond Offering, Boosts Institutional Loan.
December 12, 2005... More attractive conditions in the leveraged loan market prompted Capital Automotive REIT (CARS) to cancel a planned $500 million bond offering intended to be part of the debt financing package to back its $3.4 billion buyout by DRA Advisors. In...

Boston Scientific Nets Commitment.(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... If Boston Scientific Corp. is able to topple Johnson & Johnson with its $72-a-share bid for Guidant Corp., it appears the company will be looking to the investment grade loan market for a pretty sizeable debt financing package. Boston...

Hertz TL Twice Oversubscribed.(hertz corp)(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... It's been a smooth ride thus far for the banks driving the $3.85 billion bank financing for the $15 billion leveraged buyout of Hertz Corp. by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, The Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity. The $2 billion...

DrKW Plans January Launch For EK Success.(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) has been hired to lead a bank deal in connection with the buyout of EK Success by Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR Golder Rauner. After meeting with the rating agencies early next month, a...

LSTA To Join Amicus Brief In Enron Bankruptcy Case.(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... Last week, The Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) announced that it plans to work with other trade groups to file an amicus curiae brief (Latin for "friend of the court") supporting the defendants' request for interlocutory...

Moody's: Loan Default Rate Slipped In November.
December 12, 2005... While the bank loan market saw some pretty major bankruptcies in September and October, such as those of Delphi Corp., Refco Group and Northwest Airlines Corp., November was a very quiet month on the default front. In fact, no Moody's Investors...

S&P: Fewer Potential Fallen Angels.(Standard & Poors )(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... While 2005 has seen more fallen angels than last year - as of December 6, there were 39 fallen angels, compared with only 24 for the same time period during 2004 - fewer entities are at risk of plunging to junk status, Standard & Poor's said in...

Moody's Only Downgraded Five CDO Tranches In Q3.(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... Moody's Investors Service reported last week that it downgraded only five collateralized debt obligation (CDO) tranches within four transactions in the third quarter of this year - the lowest number the rating agency has reported since the...

Ratings Movers: Pacer Up On Debt Decrease/Hawaiian Tel Slips.
December 12, 2005... Keeping its debt reduction program on track has paid off for Pacer International, whose ratings got a boost last week from Moody's Investors Service. The company's bank debt, which includes a $75 million revolver and a $108 million term loan,...

Distressed Debt Investors Look To Trade Claims For Value.
December 12, 2005... During a Chapter 11 proceeding, bondholders are often joined in the pool of unsecured creditors with several other types of lenders vying to get repaid. One type of lender in this pool is the trade claim creditor. Trade claims comprise the...

Bookrunners Approach Home Stretch To Close Out The Year.
December 19, 2005... With the New Year less than two weeks away, it's a race to the finish line for bookrunners. Lead arrangers are working in high gear to finalize many of the deals launched for syndication in recent weeks. This has made it a hectic year-end...

What's In Store For The Loan Mart In '06?
December 19, 2005... Without a doubt, 2005 will be a year for the record books for the US leveraged loan market. Issuance has already exceeded last year's record of $496 billion thanks in large part to a voracious appetite for loans from the growing collateralized...

Airline Cos Finally See Glimmer Of Hope.
December 19, 2005... After witnessing several years of darkness and despair, analysts who cover the airline sector have finally given a glimmer of hope to the beleaguered industry. They are predicting a better year in 2006, particularly for US carriers, which, to...

Pre-Paid Pulls Bank Deal After Negative Verdict, Downgrade.
December 19, 2005... An unfavorable jury verdict soured Pre-Paid Legal Services' efforts to syndicate a $160 million bank facility last week, causing the deal to be pulled from the market. "During syndication efforts, a previously announced litigation...

Cablevision Completes Bond Portion Of Divi, Refi Deal.(cablevision systems corp)
December 19, 2005... Last week, CSC Holdings (CSC) sped through the high yield bond market, completing a $1 billion sale of 8.375% senior notes due 2015. The high yield bonds, along with a $4.5 billion credit facility led by Bank of America and Citigroup, are...

JPM, Citigroup Sell Visteon Loan.(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Visteon Corp. hit the market last week with a $300 million, 18-month term loan via joint lead arrangers JPMorgan and Citigroup. The new loan is intended to replace the company's $300 million short-term revolver that matured on December 15....

Banks Trim Pricing On Compass Credit.(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have cut pricing on the institutional tranche of the $450 million credit facility for Compass Minerals Group, according to a source familiar with the deal. The $350 million institutional term loan netted strong...

LSTA Proposes Market Holidays.(Loan Syndications and Trading Association)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Last week, The Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) recommended that both December 26, 2005, and January 2, 2006, be treated as holidays for purposes of calculating the start date for delayed compensation under the LSTA's standard...

Herschkorn Joins WestLB.(Lee Herschkorn )(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Lee Herschkorn is headed to WestLB's loan and debt capital markets group, the bank announced in a statement on December 9. His hiring is part of an effort at the bank to grow its origination and distribution efforts in the leveraged loan and...

Carlyle Hires Hance To Expand Leveraged Finance.(James Hance )(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Last week, The Carlyle Group announced that former Bank of America vice chairman and CFO James Hance is joining the firm's New York office. Hance, who retired in January from BofA, will be a senior advisor at Carlyle focused on expanding...

Wachovia Picks Smith To Head Penn./Delaware Region.(Mark Smith )(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Wachovia Corp. announced last week that it has named Mark Smith as the commercial banking executive for the Pennsylvania/Delaware region. He will be responsible for implementing commercial banking strategies in this region. Smith was most...

Recovery Forecast For MM Loans Same As For Larger Ones.(middle market loans)
December 19, 2005... As interest in middle market loans has grown in recent years, many market players have been wondering if these deals are riskier than more sizeable ones. When it comes to lenders' recovery prospects in the incident of a default, apparently they...

Ratings Movers: Sands Goes Up/Manny, Moe & Jack Loses Pep.
December 19, 2005... Bank loan investors betting on Las Vegas Sands (LVS) got some good news earlier this month when Moody's Investors Service upgraded its existing credit facility to Ba3 from B1. LVS' bank debt includes a $450 million revolver, a $970 million term...

Intralinks Launches New Service That Monitors MNPI Access.
December 19, 2005... As an increasing number of market players continue to invest across asset classes, monitoring between the public and private side of the information wall has become a vital concern. This is especially relevant to investors in the private...

Are Alternative Strategies Necessary In The Next Distressed Cycle?
December 19, 2005... by Kevin Prokop, director, Questor Management Company The last three years have been good ones for distressed debt investors. Overall returns have been excellent, driven by an improved economy, a perceived reduction in risk and increased...

Announcement.
December 19, 2005... Happy Holidays! This is the last publication in 2005 of Bank Loan Report. Expect the next issue of BLR to be in print on January 9, 2006.