Bank Loan Report articles from December 2006

Bank Loan Report archives from December 2006

Ford backs up debt with trunk full of assets.(Citigroup Inc.; The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.; J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.)
December 4, 2006... The debt market has been wrapping up some very attractive packages for the upcoming holiday season, hoping to cash in on this month's spirit of giving. But not every deal will fly off the shelf so easily. JPMorgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs...

Friedberg Milstein sees value in diversity.(firm uses integrated capital strategy)
December 4, 2006... With many portfolio managers primarily focused on one type of capital, CDO manager Friedberg Milstein maintains that not every debt package calls for the same type of investment. The firm maximizes this integrated capital strategy by using...

Deutsche Launches CLO Push From New York.(Collateralized loan obligations)(Deutsche Asset Management)
December 4, 2006... Betting that investors from New York to Hong Kong are hungry for collateralized loan obligations, Deutsche Asset Management, one of the largest CLO investors in Europe, has opened an office in the Big Apple, to tout its tailor-made investment...

JPM Flips The Nozzle On McMoran Second Lien Loan.(J.P. Morgan Chase and Co)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... JPMorgan launched a $100 million second lien term loan for McMoRan Oil & Gas last Thursday. Proceeds from the new facility will be used to pay down some of the company's $100 million asset-based revolver and fund capital expenditures, a market...

Morgan Stanley Launches Debt For Metrologic Acquisition.
December 4, 2006... Morgan Stanley is in the market with a $35 million revolver, $125 million term loan and a $75 million second lien term loan for Metrologic Instruments. The new debt package launched last Wednesday. Proceeds from the facility will be used in...

JPM cruises market for Superior Offshore.(J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. shops loan for Superior Offshore International)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... JPMorgan is shopping a $100 million term loan B for Superior Offshore International. The credit facility will be used to finance an upgraded boat for the company's diving operations, a market source said. As of press time the deal had not been...

CS And Citi Launch Credit For Education Conglomerate.(Credit Suisse)(Citigroup)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Joint lead arrangers Credit Suisse and Citigroup launched a $1.82 billion debt package for Riverdeep Holdings Limited. The debt package includes a six-year $250 million revolver and a seven-year $1.57 billion term loan. At press time, the deal...

Revlon Secures Citi And JPM For Refi.(Revlon Consumer Products Corporation, JPMorgan,Citigroup)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Lead arranger Citigroup, syndication agent JPMorgan and Revlon Consumer Products Corporation (RCPC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Revlon, announced plans to refinance RCPC's existing credit agreement. The new debt package will replace the...

Sinclair To Increase Borrowing Capacity.(Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... Sinclair Broadcast Group announced intentions to increase its borrowing capacity by $225 million under its existing $275 million credit facility arranged by JPMorgan. The company intends to use the increased availability to redeem its...

GSC Group Taps Seery For Structured Finance.(Robert P. Seery appointed as a senior vice president)(Brief article)
December 4, 2006... GSC Group recently announced the appointment of Robert P. Seery as senior vice president in its structured finance group. In his new position, Seery will lead the development of the various funding vehicles for GSC Group's structured finance...

LSTA To Host Technology Ethics Seminar.(Loan Syndications and Trading Association)
December 4, 2006... The Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) will host a seminar in New York Dec. 6, entitled "Ethics in the Digital Age: Using Technology Intelligently." Gregory P. Silberman of Kaye Scholer LLP will present the program, which focuses...

Alacra Adds S&P Credit Research.
December 4, 2006... Business services provider Alacra, recently announced the addition of Standard & Poor's credit research database to the Alacra Store, an e-commerce Web site providing business professionals pay-per-view access to reports from more than 1,000...

Employee Exodus Sparks Rumors About Winter Group.(Winter Group of Cos.)
December 4, 2006... A number of employees have recently left residential mortgage financing and asset management firm The Winter Group, including two partners. Sources close to the company adamantly deny the departures are related to any financial trouble...

Ratings Movers: Qwest Tunes Into Growth, Autocam Production Shrinks.
December 4, 2006... Quest Corp.'s ratings rose last week, when Moody's Investors Service upgraded its $500 million term loan to Ba1 from Ba2. The boost came as a result of stability in revenue due to aggressive broadband expansion and fairly successful bundling...

Technology To Surf The Debt Superhighway In 2007.
December 11, 2006... Total debt in the technology sector is expected to hit a record high in 2007, according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings, a new phenomenon in a sector that has previously seen very little issuance because founders of these companies have...

Station Buyout May Roll Snake Eyes For Junk.(Station Casinos Inc. acquired by Colony Capital Inc.)
December 11, 2006... Another large gaming buyout has put its chips on the neon glamour of Las Vegas, but the debt market may feel like it was dealt a lousy hand. Station Casinos announced last week that it received a buyout offer for all its shares from a...

Mezzanine Real Estate Loans Wrap A Busy Year.
December 11, 2006... The market for real estate mezzanine loans is increasingly sparking the interest of investors after a busy year of commercial real estate acquisitions, property development and refinancings, said speakers at the Information Management Network's...

CS And GS Fuel Up For Boston Generating.(Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs jointly financing Boston Generating)(Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase jointly financing Metaldyne Co. LLC's acquisition of Asahi Tec Corp.)(Deutsche Bank finances Stiefel Laboratories' acquisition of Connetics Corp.)
December 11, 2006... Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs are currently shopping a $2.1 billion credit facility for Boston Generating. The debt package consists of a five-year $70 million revolver, a seven-year $250 million synthetic letter of credit, a seven-year $1.08...

New Managers, Go Away, Come Again Another Day.(new hedge fund managers inexperience in portfolio management)(Conference news)
December 11, 2006... LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. - New CLO managers continue to be a thorn in the side of more seasoned players, who equate managing a deal in the currently benign credit environment to riding a bike with training wheels that investors can't see. What's...

Wall Street Looks To Finance Independent Films.
December 11, 2006... LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.- While production companies are increasingly tapping Wall Street for funds to help counter the cost of making movies, one consultancy is looking to extend commercial paper and term financing for the first time to...

Investors Question CDO Manager Equity Investment.
December 11, 2006... LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. - Amid a rash of CDO structural innovation designed to lure equity investors, a familiar debate is again rearing its head - whether CDO managers should invest in the equity of the deals they manage. While some investors...

Eric Takaha: Dodging Bullets, Doing Homework.(Franklin Templeton Investments Corp.)(Interview)
December 11, 2006... When Eric Takaha started his career with Franklin Templeton, the U.S. was heading into a recession and most people's familiarity with the high yield market came thanks to the recently indicted Michael Milken. The first LBO cycle had just ended...

Ratings Movers: WellCare Health Improves, Coffeyville Lacks Resources.
December 11, 2006... WellCare Health Plans looked robust last week, when Standard & Poor's upgraded its $125 million revolver and $160 million term loan to BB- from B+. The upgrade reflects the company's improved financial condition, which is the result of the...

We Call 2006 Megadealicious,' Will 2007 Be So Tasty?
December 18, 2006... It was the best of times, it was the best of times. It was the age of tightening spreads, it was the age of low default rates. It was the epoch of the mega-LBO, it was the epoch of fallen angels. In all aspects of the leveraged finance...

U.S. CDO Sector Has Wild Ride In 06.(collateralized debt obligations)
December 18, 2006... The U.S. CDO sector, fueled by residential mortgage and leveraged loan collateral, grew by leaps and bounds in 2006 to an estimated $480 billion - posting a gain of roughly 57% over last year and establishing itself as a staple within fixed...

Tom Finke: Multiple Funds Under Management.(Institutional Debt Management - Tom Finke)
December 18, 2006... Tom Fink is used to juggling multiple responsibilities. Not only at the office, with eight CLOs currently under management, but also at home keeping track of five kids. Though he is highly organized during the week, come Friday afternoon, Finke...

Loan Desks Squeeze Out Final 2006 Deals.
December 18, 2006... Investment bankers clamored last week to get the final 2006 deals done before they head off on a short Christmas break. One of last week's launches, a $200 million term loan for Affirmative Insurance Holdings, came from Credit Suisse. The...

BofA Launches Debt For Kyphon Medical Acquisition.(Bank Of America)(St. Francis Medical Technology)(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Bank Of America is currently shopping a $675 million credit facility for Kyphon. The debt package, which launched last Tuesday, will fund the $525 million acquisition of St. Francis Medical Technologies, a privately held, California-based...

BofA In The Market With RiskMetrics Buyout.(Bank of America Corp., Institutional Shareholder Services)(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Bank of America launched a $455 million credit facility for RiskMetrics Group last Tuesday. The debt package consists of a $25 million revolver, a $300 million first lien term loan and a $130 million second lien term loan. Proceeds from the...

Market Looks Rocky For PRC Debt Close.(Royal Bank of Scotland PLC)(PRC LLC.)(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Royal Bank Of Scotland's $205 million credit facility for PRC, LLC may be facing some challenges on its road to close before year end, according to an institutional investor. The debt package, which consists of a $20 million revolver, a $25...

Clearwater Launches First Fund.(Clearwater Capital Partners)(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Clearwater Capital Partners, the private equity firm specializing in managing distressed and restructured debt in ex-Japan Asia, launched its first CLO last week. Merrill Lynch is arranger on the $146 million offering, issued via a...

Z Capital Takes On Eden As MD.(H. Bradley Eden )(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Z Capital Partners recently announced that it has named H. Bradley Eden managing director and head of corporate development. In his new position, Eden will also focus on investor relations. Eden was the chairman of Fund Evaluation Group, a...

NewStar Expands And Taps Back For West Coast.(NewStar Financial appointed Jeremy Back )(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... NewStar Financial recently announced it will open an office in San Diego, adding to those it has in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Charleston, S.C. and Darien, Conn. Jeremy Back has been hired as a managing director and will be responsible for...

Bayview Promotes Lawson For Loans.(Bayview Financial promoted Brian Lawson )(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Bayview Financial has announced the promotion of Brian Lawson to senior vice president and national sales manager. In his new position, Lawson will manage the recruitment, development and performance of a 25-person sales and support team. He...

Survey Finds Bank Loans Down For Fastest Growing Private Companies.(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... A new survey from Pricewaterhouse Coopers' "Trendsetter Barometer" found that despite the leveling off of interest rates in the third quarter of 2006, the use of bank loans was limited among CEOs of the nation's fastest growing private...

EDITOR'S NOTE.
December 18, 2006... Dear Readers, We hope you enjoy our last issue of 2006. Bank Loan Report will now take a two-week publishing break. Our next issue will be Jan. 8, 2007. Please take a few minutes to fill out the reader's survey, inserted in this week's...

The Market Looks Ahead.
December 18, 2006... We asked participants in the bank loan and high yield bond markets what they see in store for 2007. Here is what they had to say: "Barring something unforeseeable, 2007 should get off to a flying start. It's becoming more and more apparent...

Calyon Aims To Join Top Five U.S. CDO Underwriters.
December 18, 2006... Calyon last week announced plans to grow its global CDO staff by one-third. The news came amid a shake-up that left the investment bank without several key members of its U.S. CDO team, including cash CDO head Alexander Rekeda. Nonetheless, the...

Mizuho Nabs Calyon CDO Staffers.(Mizuho Securities USA )(Alexander Rekeda )
December 18, 2006... Mizuho Securities USA is positioning itself to become a familiar name in U.S. CDO-ville, with former Calyon cash CDO head Alexander Rekeda leading the Japanese bank's foray into U.S. CDO issuance from New York. Rekeda was a driving force behind...

Correction.(Correction notice)
December 18, 2006... The Dec. 11, 2006 version of Bank Loan Report contained an inaccuracy regarding Trust Company of the West's CDO business. The article should have read that the company has a general policy against investing in the equity of deals it manages as...

Ratings Movers: CKE Dishes Out Debt Reduction, Telcordia Dry On Cash Flow.
December 18, 2006... Restaurant operator and franchiser CKE Restaurants - which primarily operates under the brands Carl's Jr. and Hardee's - saw its rating rise last week when Standard & Poor's gave the company an early Christmas gift, a one point boost to CKE's...