Bank Loan Report articles from December 2007

Bank Loan Report archives from December 2007

Same Game, Different Plays For CLOs.
December 3, 2007... After getting sidelined several months ago, a number of CLOs are getting back into the game, but with a different play book. A desire for more transparency is leading to an increase in synthetic deals, sources say, and more emphasis is being...

Stormy Market Grounds Sequa.
December 3, 2007... Just as a deal for New York-based aircraft parts manufacturer Sequa was about to take off, Lehman Brothers, the primary underwriter, called it back to the hangar. This comes on the heels of the ill-fated Chrysler deal, which was postponed...

Calyon Launches First CCO Deal.
December 3, 2007... Calyon is arranging its first CDO backed by commodity trigger swaps - or a collateralized commodities obligation (CCO) - set to close by the end of the month. The transaction, Amadeus 2007-1, references 10 commodities, including base metals,...

Editor's Note: Sometimes Nothing Tops Vanilla, Except A Few Sprinkles.(financial )(Editorial)
December 3, 2007... Remember the simple life? A bank loan was a bank loan and a junk bond was a junk bond. Investment vehicles knew their place in this world, and after a long, hard day of being launched and priced and traded, they'd meander down to the malt shop...

Loan Market Buzz: Smaller Deals Garner Attention In Stagnant Loan Market.
December 3, 2007... The leveraged loan market is going green with a West LB-led deal for U.K.-based Renewable Energy Systems. West LB last Tuesday held a meeting in New York for a $316 million credit facility for the alternative energy company, according to a...

Rating Movers: Denny's Up On Debt Repayment, Directed Sees Weak Sales.
December 3, 2007... Standard & Poor's last week upgraded a $350 million credit facility for Spartanburg, S.C.-based restaurant chain Denny's to BB from BB-. The debt consists of a $260 million term loan B due 2012, a $50 million revolver due 2011 and a $40 million...

Insight's Moss Plays Switch Hitter.
December 10, 2007... Alexander Moss, high yield fund manager for London-based buy-side firm Insight Investments, is one of the lucky ones. At a time when European high yield investors are keen to put money to work, and there are no new issues to speak of, Mosswho...

$1 Billion Is As Good As It Gets In Credit Markets.
December 10, 2007... In the movie As Good as It Gets, Jack Nicholsons Melvin Udall character must overcome his obsessive compulsive disorder to win the heart of Helen Hunts Carol Connelly. After several hilarious setbacks, Melvin finally pulls through and woos...

Party Down, Or Just down On parties.
December 10, 2007... Holiday parties are being scaled back across Wall Street, and many professionals are feeling a little less merry and more Grinch-like when it comes to celebrating this year. Business has generally been down, there have been massive layoffs...

TTM Decreases Leverage, Freedom Sees Weak Ebitda.(TTM Technologies Inc.)
December 10, 2007... Standard & Poors upgraded a $240 million credit facility for niche circuit board manufacturer TTM Technologies last week. The debt, which consists of a $200 million first-lien term loan due 2012 and a $40 million revolver due 2011, was raised...

Recovery Ratings, Defaults In Sharper Focus.
December 10, 2007... Standard & Poors upgraded a $240 million credit facility for niche circuit board manufacturer TTM Technologies last week. The debt, which consists of a $200 million first-lien term loan due 2012 and a $40 million revolver due 2011, was raised...

Investors Warm Up To GGS, Times Change For RCN.
December 10, 2007... The Royal Bank of Scotland last week launched a $200 million credit facility for Houston-based Global Geophysical Services, which provides seismic data to the oil and gas industry, at a bank meeting in New York. And it appears that investors...

Editor's Note: Who Might Follow Warren's Lead? Anybody?
December 10, 2007... News that legendary investor Warren Buffett bought up $2.1 billion of the $3.75 billion in high yield bonds priced for Energy Future Holdings Nov. 29 got me to thinking. Even though Warrens move in this instance certainly wasnt philanthropic,...

Euro Market Readies For Slow 2008.
December 18, 2007... The European corporate credit markets have never seen a year like 2007. It was a year in which the markets rose to unprecedented highs, and then, in the blink of an eye, scaled right back to the levels of several years ago, with issuance...

Energy M&A Continues On High Power.
December 18, 2007... The energy sector seems immune from many of the seasonal and recessionary forces that can hamper other sectors, and consistent M&A activity among power utilities has brought a recent surge of high yield investment into the space, despite the...

Editor's Note: A New Year Promises Deals In Smaller Packages.
December 18, 2007... We here at Bank Loan Report coined a phrase in the headline of our last year-end issue to sum up 2006. Megadealicious we called it. And that seemed to suit a year that saw record-breaking deal volume and the advent of the megadeal, with...

Loan Market Buzz: NewPage Shines; Royalty, Consolidated Comm., ReMax Falter.
December 18, 2007... Investors last week ate up a Goldman Sachs-led $1 billion plus-size deal for Miamisburg, Ohio-based paper manufacturer NewPage. Goldman syndicated a $1.6 billion term loan, which was priced at Libor plus 375 bps, with an OID of 97, on Dec. 7,...

Asset-Backed CP Still Suffers From Illiquidity.
December 18, 2007... Five months after the credit markets were walloped by subprime mortgage debt problems, a key element of Wall Streets debt markets, the asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) market, is still smarting from a lack of liquidity. That lack of...

Rating Movers: Iconix Sees Cash, Axia Hurt By Housing.(Iconix Brand Group and Axia Group Inc.)
December 18, 2007... Standard & Poors last week upgraded a $272.5 million term loan for New York-based apparel brand manager and licensor Iconix Brand Group to BB from BB-. The ratings agency also raised the debts recovery rating, which now anticipates a 90% to...

The Market Looks Ahead.(market conditions of the United States)
December 18, 2007... 2008 could be the year of the mid-market deal. Its going to take a while for large caps to recover. - Randy Schwimmer, head of capital markets, Churchill Financial If theres a general concern I have its probably the general economy and...