Bank Loan Report articles from July 2008

Bank Loan Report archives from July 2008

Lev Finance Goliaths Challenged By Davids.
July 7, 2008... After two years of credit market gluttony that left them bloated on billions in debt, the bulge bracket investment banks have spent the first half of 2008 on a low-risk diet and a regimen of cost-cutting that has Wall Street shedding employees...

Issuance Slump Continues To Pressure CDOs.
July 7, 2008... CLOs continued to squeak out new issuance in the second quarter, making them the only corner of the U.S. CDO market to do so. The good news is that, of the new CLO deals to hit the market, several were structured from fresh loan assets-rather...

Quiet Q2 Heralds More Normal Euro Market.
July 7, 2008... With a mere $29 billion in underwritten volume, the European leveraged loan market ended the second quarter on a quiet note. Yet participants like Eric Capp, managing director and global head of leveraged capital markets at RBS in London, are...

Investors Skeptical Of Ticket Master Deal.
July 7, 2008... At least some investors won't be fighting for the front row in the $550 million JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch-led deal for Ticket Master. The credit facility consists of a $250 million term loan B, a $200 million revolver and a $100 million term...

First Half Of '08 Fails To Set Market Straight.
July 7, 2008... As the U.S. headed into the July 4 holiday, credit market investors were telling the world to "take this economy and shove it." The first half of 2008 has left investors with the same worries that the end of 2007 left them. Market participants...

Correction.(Correction notice)
July 7, 2008... An article in the June 30 issue mistakenly identified the corporate home of energy company Calpine. Calpine's corporate offices are in Houston and San Jose, Calif.

Hartford's Bacevich Navigates Rough Markets.
July 14, 2008... Mike Bacevich joined Hartford Investment Management Co., a subsidiary of The Harford Financial Services Group, at a time when leveraged finance was about to head into strong backwinds. Before joining the Hartford, he was head of the leveraged...

The $1 Million (Or Are We Back To $64,000?) Question.
July 14, 2008... Whether you care to define it as a recession, a downturn or a pickle, the big question we all face regarding today's economy is: When will it recover? Predictions have come and gone over the past several months, often getting shoved aside...

European Trading Volumes Hit Critical Mass.
July 14, 2008... Forget the credit markets. The systems used by Europe's leverage loan traders are about to have a meltdown of their own, despite the fact that the primary loan market there has slowed down significantly. Because loan volumes in Europe have...

One Oil And Gas Deal Launches, One More On The Way.
July 14, 2008... Credit Suisse is marketing a $325 million term loan B for Nations Petroleum, a Canadian oil and gas company operating in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. Price talk has not been determined and calls to Credit Suisse were not returned...

Poll: Spreads To Widen, Defaults To Increase.(International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers)(credit market)
July 14, 2008... A survey conducted by the International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers shows that credit investors believe spreads, which had been tightening, are likely to widen over the next three months. Participants in the survey, dubbed the...

Banks Tap Market For Quicksilver Resources.
July 14, 2008... Credit Suisse and Bank of America are gearing up to launch a $700 million second-lien term loan and $300 million in senior notes due 2015 for Fort Worth, Texas-based natural gas and crude oil producer Quicksilver Resources. Credit Suisse is the...

The Price Is Wrong: Who To Blame For CCC Overpricing?
July 14, 2008... At a time when high-risk credit should be flying off the shelves at bargain basement prices, the riskiest high yield bonds are not priced where they ought to be in light of where they have been in past credit cycles, according to investors. And...

Get Your CB Out, Covenant Transport Eyes Debt Package.
July 21, 2008... Breaker one-nine, breaker one-nine, this here's Rubber Duck. You gotta debt package at the next exit. You copy, Pig Pen? OK, so maybe there wasn't a debt package in C.W. McCall's 1975 hit "Convoy," but there might be for Covenant...

Forget Jesus, What Would Pollyanna Do?(banking industry)
July 21, 2008... People tend to toss around the Pollyanna label pretty freely, often using it in its most simplistic form-to define someone, as the American Heritage Dictionary does, as "foolishly or blindly optimistic." But as with any cultural reference,...

HY Primary Down, But Not Out.
July 21, 2008... A nearly two-week long drought in the high yield primary market came to an end last week. But market observers don't expect a full recovery until there are signs of an improving economy and more clarity about the state of the banking system....

Avec's Lesavoy Talks Private Equity Fund Raising.
July 21, 2008... Bank Loan Report sister publication Investment Dealers Digest recently sat down for a chat with Nina Lesavoy, managing director and founder of Avec Capital, to discuss the business of private equity fund raising amid one of the industry's...

Smaller Deals Rule The Leveraged Loan Market.
July 21, 2008... A $275 million term loan B is being prepped for ION Geophysical, a Canadian seismic processing servicer to the global oil and gas industry, to help fund its acquisition of ARAM Systems, a Canadian provider of seismic recording systems, and its...

SIV Won't Trump Secondary's Hold On Primary.
July 21, 2008... Two things happened last week that should have boosted leveraged loan primary issuance-or at the very least been a catalyst for change. One was the launch of a $7 billion structured investment vehicle, a deal led by Goldman Sachs. The other was...

Back With a Vengeance: Mezz Fills Debt Void.
July 21, 2008... Mezzanine financing, which was the redheaded stepchild of the debt markets during the heyday of easy credit and mega-LBO deals, is back. After record-setting fund raising in the first half of the year, mezzanine may be poised to take the place...

Banks To Launch Avaya TLB, Ready Notes.
July 28, 2008... Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan are hoping to connect with investors this week in order to sell part of a $3.8 billion term loan B for Avaya, the Basking Ridge, N.J.-based provider of communication systems to businesses and government agencies. ...

Should Bank Analysts Hire Headline Writers?
July 28, 2008... Last week's news that BankAtlantic Bancorp filed suit against Ladenburg Thalmann banking analyst Richard Bove, accusing him of defamation and negligence over a recently published research report, makes me uneasy. Sure banks are feeling a...

European Banks, Groups: Viva La Resistance!
July 28, 2008... The European Commission has proposed changing the Capital Requirements Directive, Europe's Basel II, by adding a rule that would require banks to retain 10% of a deal they've underwritten. Although it affects banks on another continent, the...

Strategists To HY PMs: Get Thee Some Loans.
July 28, 2008... For high yield bond portfolio managers looking to make the most out of a poor-performing sector, investing in a leveraged loan or two might provide a means of doing just that, UBS strategists say. Low-dollar loans can be useful tools for...

Investors Chew Over Wrigley Deal.
July 28, 2008... A bank group led by Goldman Sachs last Wednesday began marketing a $3.6 billion term loan B for the iconic gum maker William Wrigley Co. Price talk last week was at Libor plus 375 bps, with an OID of 97 and a 3.0% Libor floor. Investors...