Bank Loan Report articles from July 2007

Bank Loan Report archives from July 2007

Flu Or Hiccup, High Yield Markets Are On Notice.
July 2, 2007... It was a time of reckoning for the high yield primary market last week. Participants had been reading all economic forecasts and horoscopes in an attempt to pinpoint the moment when the "any deal, any way, for any price" market would end, and...

Telesat Rides Satellite Wave With $3B In Debt.
July 2, 2007... It took mankind thousands of years to reach outer space; it took the buyout and M&A market a fraction of that time. One of the latest companies to be spun out and merged into a larger company, with the help of private equity, is Telesat Canada,...

S&P Initiates Dialogue On Cov-Lite Loans.
July 2, 2007... Many say covenant-lite loans are a clear manifestation of an over-the-top market, but their increased presence has implications for the future of the leveraged finance market. For its part, Standard & Poor's is expecting more loss potential and...

Leveraged Lending & Subprime: Separated At Birth?
July 2, 2007... High yield investors finally told issuers to "talk to the hand" last week, and this change in sentiment comes none too soon, according to analysis by New York-based hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management. The high yield markets have...

Loan Market Launches Overshadowed By Yanked Bonds.
July 2, 2007... Amid troubled deals such as US Foodservice and Thomson Learning, a few issues managed to squeeze their way onto the loan market before quarter's end last week. Atlas Pipeline Partners issued a $1.15 billion credit facility last Wednesday...

Rating Movers: Compass Bumps Up On Credit, Triumph Declines On Cash.
July 2, 2007... Moody's Investors Service last week upgraded Compass Minerals Group's $350 million senior secured term loan and its $125 million revolver to Ba1 from Ba3. The upgrade reflects the company's improved credit metrics, a result of Compass's steady...

Market Prepares For Change After Other Shoe Drops In Q2.
July 9, 2007... The days of "any deal goes"? That is so first half 2007. "[The second quarter] was like a basketball game, where all the action happened in the last few minutes," said Martin Fridson, CEO of research firm FridsonVision. The question...

It's Showtime As Canada's BCE Turns On An LBO.
July 9, 2007... With the proposed acquisition of Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) ready to take its place as the largest telecom leveraged buyout in Canada's history, out-pricing even the May LBO of U.S. telecom company Alltel by $21 billion, we can no doubt...

Volatility Hits Euro Loans At Close Of 1st Half.
July 9, 2007... On June 29, one of the worst days for the European leveraged loan market this year, a megadeal hit the primary: Alliance Boots' long-awaited E9 billion LBO financing, a multitranche, complex deal - the details of which are still not fully known...

In Honor Of Uncle Sam, Fun (Arbitrary) Facts About Fees.(Statistical data)
July 9, 2007... Whether you view the recent investor pushback as a much-needed adjustment in power or a sign that the days of easy money have come to an end, one thing is for sure: Banks did pretty well for themselves in the leveraged finance front for the...

Oh Say, Can You See - Anyone At All?
July 9, 2007... High yield bond deals haven't been the only ones disappearing recently. With the midweek Fourth of July holiday last week, the loan market was quiet, and at least one offering suffered a downgrade after being pulled. Early in the week, New...

Merrill Remains On Top Despite Declining CDO Conditions.
July 9, 2007... Issuance in the U.S. CDO market remained strong through the second quarter of 2007, despite the sour taste in investors' mouths from the ABS vehicles' subprime exposure. Indeed, U.S. CDO issuance was up, totaling $188.33 billion through...

Ratings Movers: McDermott Rises In Performance, Dollar General Realigns Capital Structure.
July 9, 2007... Moody's Investors Services upgraded McDermott International and its subsidiaries last week. Moody's raised the corporate family rating of McDermott and subsidiary J. Ray McDermott to Ba3 from B1 and bumped its senior secured bank facility to...

The Loan Market's Comeback Kid? Covenants.
July 16, 2007... Further indicating that investors are now calling the shots on the credit markets, issuers are hotfooting to add covenants to recently launched leveraged loan deals. Last week, Source Interlink, Vertrue, Van Houtte and Harlan Sprague...

Ceridian Faces Conflict On Way To $3.7B Debt Package.
July 16, 2007... For the managers of Ceridian Corp., seeking to end a series of battles with an activist investor through a leveraged buyout only got them another potential battle over the LBO. Should they get their way, the Minneapolis-based outsourcing...

RMBS Downgrades Feed CDO Market Frenzy.
July 16, 2007... Standard & Poor's placed about $7.3 billion worth of subprime bonds on CreditWatch with negative implications last Tuesday, a dose of consolation to a market that originally thought the rating agency would downgrade $12 billion of bonds. ...

If The Buyout Boom Were A Movie Character...
July 16, 2007... What movie character would the current buyout boom be? I'd like to put my two cents in for "The Terminator." Let me explain. There are bombs going off all around us (in some cases smart bombs, but bombs nonetheless). High yield bond...

Despite Pushback, Loan Market Makes Way For New Deals.
July 16, 2007... In the past few weeks, investor pushback and the subsequent haggling have postponed deal closures and backlogged the loan market. And last week saw at least five new launches hit, including three from health-care companies - RadNet, Elder...

Hedge Fund Quake May Remain Isolated, For Now.
July 16, 2007... The recent troubles of the Bear Stearns Asset Management Funds, the halt on redemptions at United Capital Asset Management and the shutdown of a hedge fund at Braddock Financial might only be the first of many market rumbles to clock in on the...

Ratings Movers: Copa Casino Banks on Recovery, Educate Fails in Deal Proposal.
July 16, 2007... Standard & Poor's last week upgraded Copa Casino of Mississippi's $230 million senior secured facility, consisting of a $45 million revolver and a $185 million term loan, to BB from BB-. The rating action indicates that lenders can expect very...

Is There A Credit Storm Abrewin' For The Fall?
July 23, 2007... Consensus never comes easily, even less so when you throw in the bold - some might say "cocky" - personalities that inhabit the world of private equity and investment banking. So it's no surprise that there is no definitive response to the...

Credit Card Operator Charged With Going AWOL.
July 23, 2007... Following a pattern reminiscent of a child star's career, credit-card operator Alliance Data Systems' debt package seems to have slipped into a period of invisibility. The loan portion of the deal debuted in June, but as time has passed, the...

Tribune Not Giving Up The Ghost On Buyout.
July 23, 2007... The sound and the fury of a troubled company's fortunes will not extinguish the light in August of a promised buyout, if Tribune Co. can do anything about it. The Chicago-based media giant is scrambling to whip itself into shape for the deal....

Like A Bridge Over ... Make That "To" Troubled Water.(Column)
July 23, 2007... OK, call me a sheep, a lemming, a member of the herd, but I can't resist. It seems everywhere I turn, someone is talking or writing about equity bridges. They are the villainous stars of the moment, criticized most recently by even the heads of...

Loan Market Mixed As Deals Launch And Are Pulled.
July 23, 2007... While some deals were getting done on the loan market last week, others were getting pulled. And those that are launching these days are of the smaller variety. Last week they included EaglePicher, Wilton Industries, IWCO Direct, Pro-Build...

Bear Comes Clean, But What's Next?
July 23, 2007... After Bear Stearns sent a letter to investors regarding the effective collapse of two of its hedge funds, stating "there is effectively no value left for the investors in the Enhanced Leverage Fund and very little value left for the investors...

The Stubborn Find Value in Subprime.
July 23, 2007... "Subprime companies are like zombies. They keep coming back from the dead." Such is the appraisal of the industry offered by a mortgage broker on an Internet site, Broker Outpost.com, where lenders swap gossip about the industry. It may...

Ratings Movers: Frontier Pumps Up Offshore Units, Coffeyville Loses From Flood.
July 23, 2007... Standard & Poor's last week upgraded Frontier Drilling's $350 million senior secured credit facility to B from B-. The ratings action follows the company's addition of $25 million to the first-lien term loan, bringing it to $290 million. A $60...

Investors Head For The Hills As Credit Markets Melt Down.
July 30, 2007... Now is the summer of our discontent. The high yield bond and loan markets have flopped down on the front porch, like a hound dog whose insatiable hunger led him to rob the overstuffed picnic basket and indulge to the point of indigestion. Now,...

CLO Spreads To Widen as Market Fear Intensifies.
July 30, 2007... With heightened risk aversion sending spreads in the CDO market to gaping widths, the CLO market has seemed to remain intact. However, spillover from the subprime turmoil and hedge funds' recent attempts to divest their loan positions will push...

Columbia's Kevin Cronk: Diagnosing Disunity.(an interview with investor Kevin Cronk)(Interview)
July 30, 2007... Kevin Cronk would like to see more unity among bond buyers. Investors, he says, could learn from the current market environment and band together to improve their lot during those times, like not so long ago, when the power lies squarely on the...

High Yield Investors Break Free From Jail Of Tight Spreads.
July 30, 2007... A thumbs up to Bill Gross, bond portfolio manager and managing director at PIMCO, who like others on the buy side of the market is heralding the newly established unity among bondholders. Gross, who made his views known in his August 2007...

CDO Managers Slip Into Spectator Position.
July 30, 2007... The dislocation in the CDO market right now has posed a number of challenges for CDO managers trying to balance higher returns with palatable risk characteristics. However, there is slow to almost nonexistent activity in ABS CDO new issuance,...

Loan Boom Brings Big Refinancing Risks.
July 30, 2007... The popularity of leveraged loans among high yield investors has shifted refinancing risk, and the ability of levered companies to refinance maturing loans will be critical, according to a study released last week by Fitch Ratings. The...

Prospect Up On Rejig, Best Brands Down On Cov Violation.
July 30, 2007... Standard & Poor's last week upgraded a $115 million senior secured bank facility for Prospect Medical Holdings, a California medical services provider, raising the ratings on the company's $100 million first-lien term loan and $15 million...