Bank Loan Report articles from March 2007

Bank Loan Report archives from March 2007

TXU: Bigger, Though Not Necessarily Easier in Texas.
March 5, 2007... The proposed buyout of Dallas-based energy company TXU Corp. by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group could be in for a bucking ride ahead. The acquisition, which would be the largest private equity deal in history, has already...

Lev Finance Still Prime, Market Says.
March 5, 2007... The recent collapse of the subprime mortgage market has raised alarm among some leveraged finance market watchers that trouble could be on the horizon. This isn't because leveraged finance investors have been secretly investing money in...

Street Sheds Risk To ABS CDOs.
March 5, 2007... Wall Street dealers, some of which are rWall Street dealers, some of which are rumored to be taking substantial losses from the ailing subprime mortgage market, are tightening the purse strings - in part to limit their exposure to mezzanine ABS...

JPM, BofA And Citi Head Back To Market For Charter.
March 5, 2007... JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup are flexing the debt on Charter Communications Operating LLC. The banks launched syndication of a term loan for the operating company last Tuesday, which will be upsized by $500 million to $1.5...

Bank Duo Launches Freeport With Ultra-Tight Spreads.
March 5, 2007... JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch launched the highly anticipated credit facility for Freeport-McMoRan last Tuesday. The debt package includes a $1.5 billion revolver, a $2.5 billion term loan A and a $7.5 billion term loan B. Price talk on the...

BofA Refinances Mothers Work.
March 5, 2007... Bank Of America is shopping a $90 million term loan B for Mothers Work. Proceeds will be used to refinance the company's remaining $90 million outstanding 11.25% senior notes due 2010. Mothers Work is also amending its existing $60 million...

Alliance Amends and Restates.(Alliance One International)(Brief article)
March 5, 2007... Alliance One International is amending and restating its senior secured credit facility arranged by ING Capital and Wachovia. The new debt will consist of a three-and-a-half-year $250 million revolver and a four-year $135 million term loan....

Distressed Debt Team Departs Credit Suisse In Europe.
March 5, 2007... Several distressed debt bankers in Europe left Credit Suisse last week, including London-based David Abrams, head of nonperforming loans, and Matthew Johnson, a Frankfurt-based distressed debt banker. According to the Financial News, they are...

ACA Prepares For First Euro CLO.
March 5, 2007... ACA Capital Holdings is preparing to market its first European loan-backed CLO. The company is also ramping up five transactions, two of which it is currently marketing, along with a managed tranche program, said Alan Roseman, president and...

Citigroup Fixed Income Re-Org Will Affect Lev Finance.
March 5, 2007... Citigroup recently announced that it is reorganizing its fixed income, currencies and commodities business. The company said it is integrating its emerging markets fixed income business with its stand-alone fixed income business and announced a...

CIT Appoints Nemia For Commercial and Industrial.
March 5, 2007... CIT Group announced that it has appointed Joseph F. Nemia as president of CIT Commercial and Industrial, a unit of CIT Corporate Finance. Prior to this position, Nemia was executive vice president and chief sales officer of CIT Commercial...

LSTA Holds Loan Conference Across The Pond.
March 5, 2007... The Loan Syndications and Trading Association will host an all-day conference in London March 13, examining issues that affect the U.S. and European leveraged loan market, including the ratings agency environment - jurisdictional issues and...

CAT Bonds Get A Facelift Via A Synthetic CDO.
March 5, 2007... Societe Generale last week launched the first synthetic CDO of insurance and reinsurance entities on behalf of the world's fourth-largest reinsurer, Hannover Re. The deal, Merlin CDO I BV, applies synthetic CDO structuring techniques to the...

Ratings Movers: ArvinMeritor Drives Up On Debt Paydown, GNC Health Suffers.
March 5, 2007... Auto parts supplier ArvinMeritor climbed up to investment-grade territory last week, when Moody's Investors Service upgraded a senior secured revolver issued by the company to Baa3 from Ba1. The rare upgrade for a company with automotive...

How About A Little Debt On The Barbie, Mate?
March 12, 2007... LBOs continue to send more debt deals galloping to the leveraged finance market. Now the home of the "Bloomin' Onion" could bring another, as one of the deals in the pipeline is a $2.7 billion debt package for OSI Restaurant Partners, the...

New Century Grabs For Lifeline.
March 12, 2007... Bankruptcy rumors swirled around top-three subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. last week -with one analyst likening the company's financial condition to a "death spiral" - as it ceased accepting mortgage applications and entertained...

Q&A: FT Loan Group Cheers Selloff.(Interview)
March 12, 2007... Franklin Templeton Investments' Floating Rate Debt Group, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, currently manages roughly $5 billion in discretionary assets, about two-thirds of which are retail assets managed through an onshore...

Federal-Mogul To Exit Chapter 11 With $3.5 Billion Facility.
March 12, 2007... JPMorgan and Citigroup are preparing a $3.5 billion exit facility for Federal-Mogul Corp., according to market sources. The banks are working on a $2.082 billion delayed-draw term loan, an $878 million term loan B and a $540 million...

Loan Market Gulps Down $4.8B Offering From Dean Foods.
March 12, 2007... Dean Foods Co. hit the bank loan market last week with a $4.8 billion financing package arranged by JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wachovia. The debt package comprises a $1.8 billion term loan B, a $1.5 billion term loan A and a $1.5...

Celanese Splashes Market With $3.6B Refinancing.
March 12, 2007... Hybrid chemical company Celanese Corp. spilled onto the loan market last week with a $3.6 billion refinancing. Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank launched the new senior secured credit facility, which comprises a $2.3 billion and E400 million term...

Sabre Travel Lands $3.6B Financing for Buyout.
March 12, 2007... Sabre Holdings Corp. touched down on the loan market with a $3.6 billion credit facility last week. The proceeds will be used to finance the travel distribution and technology company's buyout by Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group....

Building Materials Corp. Kicks Off $1.575 Billion In Credit.
March 12, 2007... Building Materials Corp. of America launched a $975 million first lien term loan and a $325 million second-lien term loan arranged by Deutsche Bank, Bear Stearns and JP Morgan last week. Price talk was at Libor plus 275 bps on the first-lien...

Sterigenics Reprices Term Loan.
March 12, 2007... Sterigenics International launched a repricing on an existing $290 million term loan B last Wednesday. The deal, arranged by JPMorgan, took the loan to Libor plus 225 bps from Libor plus 250 bps, with a 101-soft call. The company wanted to...

S&P Drops Rating On New Century.
March 12, 2007... New Century Financial Corp. saw its plethora of legal troubles translated to a downgrade last week, as S&P lowered its counterparty credit rating to CCC from B. Its rating is on CreditWatch with negative implications, where S&P had placed it...

Ratings Movers: Affiliated Computer Up On Audit/Clarke Checks In With Downgrade.
March 12, 2007... Standard & Poor's upgraded the corporate family and senior secured ratings on Affiliated Computer Services to BB from B+ last Wednesday; the outlook is stable. The action affects a $1.8 billion term loan and a $1 billion revolver, as well...

I'd Buy That For A Dollar: KKR Likes Dollar General.
March 19, 2007... Neighborhood convenience store chain Dollar General prides itself on saving its customers time and money. Yet the recent acquisition announcement from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and its accompanying debt, will mean anything but extra...

Aramark Reprice Angers Market.
March 19, 2007... Less than two months after the deal first closed and before the company has even made its first interest payment, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are back in the market with a repricing for ARAMARK. The banks are attempting to tighten ARAMARK's...

Health Care Is Healthy, But Risky.
March 19, 2007... If the only two guaranteed things in life are death and taxes, then the health care and hospital industry represents a superb confluence of the two. The health care industry not only occupies an essential place in the human experience, it also...

Hot Loans Melt Through Icy Economic Conditions.
March 19, 2007... The leveraged loan market did not seem shaken by continued concerns about the subprime mortgage market or reports of low retail sales for February. These issues sent stocks tumbling last week, amid fears of a more widespread financial...

CS To Fund $2.87 Billion Maguire Property Acquisition.
March 19, 2007... Lead arranger Credit Suisse, along with bookrunners Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, is gearing up to launch an $825 million credit facility for Maguire Properties on March 28. The new debt will include a five-year $200 million revolver and a...

GS And CS Launch CareStream Selloff.
March 19, 2007... Joint lead arrangers Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse are in the market with a $2.09 billion credit facility for CareStream Health. The new debt includes a five-year $150 million revolver, a six-year $1.5 billion term loan B and a...

JPM Launches Pillow Debt For Sleep Innovations.(J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. (New York, New York))(Brief article)
March 19, 2007... JPMorgan is in the market with a debt package for Sleep Innovations, which will include a $30 million revolver, a $225 million term loan B and a $70 million second-lien term loan. Proceeds will be used to fund its acquisition of Prime Foam, to...

Bank Duo Arranges Learning Buyout.
March 19, 2007... Joint lead arrangers Credit Suisse and Barclays launched a $158 million debt package for Cambium Learning last Monday. The new credit facility includes a six-year $30 million revolver and a six-year $128 million term loan B. Proceeds from...

Spectrum Gears Up For Tough Refi.
March 19, 2007... Atlanta-based Spectrum Brands is set to launch a refinancing - underwritten by Goldman Sachs and Bank of America - of a current $1.48 billion credit facility, bringing it to $1.6 billion. The new six-year debt package consists of a term...

JPM Tightens Up Waste Pricing.
March 19, 2007... JPMorgan is in the market with a repricing for Allied Waste Industries. The $1.575 billion revolver is being tightened to Libor plus 175 from Libor plus 250 bps. The $1.105 billion term loan B is currently priced at Libor plus 175 bps and will...

Blue Pearl Prepays Second Lien.(financing UBS Capital L.L.C. for purchasing Thompson Creek Metals Co .)(Brief article)
March 19, 2007... Blue Pearl Mining Ltd., is prepaying its $62 million second-lien credit facility, arranged by UBS, as part of the financing to purchase Thompson Creek Metals Co. The first-lien lenders allowed for the prepayment by waiving their right to be...

PIM Fixed Income Bulks Up Bank Loans.
March 19, 2007... Prudential Investment Management-Fixed Income announced that Joe Lemanowicz, former head of high yield credit research, has been named head of the U.S. bank loan portfolio management team. Also joining the bank loan team is George Edwards, who...

Wachovia Adds To Media Group.
March 19, 2007... Wachovia Securities has added William Bundy and John Schwarz as managing directors, with a focus in the media and communications industry. Bundy will report to John White, managing director and head of the media and communications investment...

Hedge Fund Risk: The Intersection of Valuation and Redemption.
March 19, 2007... By Jonathan Sablone and Timothy W. Mungovan Institutional buy-siders who invest in hedge funds have long been concerned with redemption liquidity -that is, their ability to redeem an investment from a fund. Investors should also be...

Ratings Movers: Clayton Up On Margins, Pinnacle Debt Weighs Down Ratings.
March 19, 2007... Debt-focused consulting company Clayton Holdings must have taken its own financial advice last week, causing Moody's Investors Service to upgrade the company's $45 million revolver and $150 million term loan B to Ba3 from B1. The ratings...

Leverage Spill On Aisle Four: A&P Rings Up Lots Of Debt.
March 23, 2007... In John Updike's short story, "The A&P," a young grocery store cashier abruptly quits his job at an A&P supermarket. He walks outside the store and is hit with the realization of "how hard the world [is] going to be to me hereafter." Today, it...

Citation Corp. Falls Victim To Chapter 22.
March 23, 2007... Less than two years after emerging from Chapter 11, privately owned auto and industrial cast parts provider Citation Corp. is right back where it started -- in a "Chapter 22" scenario, to use a phrase coined by credit analysts. The company...

Middle Market Sees New Players, Stays Steady.
March 23, 2007... A constant stream of paper has increased the number of players in the middle and lower-middle market. While some mezzanine funds have grown in terms of their investment size, other funds have entered the market at the lower end. ...

Bank Trio Tapped For Clean And Tidy Buyout.
March 23, 2007... JPMorgan, Banc of America Securities and Citigroup were selected last week to lead the debt financing for the leveraged buyout of ServiceMaster Co. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice will purchase the company for a total value of approximately $5.5...

RCN Launches Recap For Shareholder Dividend.
March 23, 2007... Deutsche Bank is in the market with a $595 million debt package for RCN Corp., which launched last Tuesday. The $75 million revolver and $520 million term loan B will be used, in connection with cash on hand, to fund a recapitalization,...

Bank Duo Bulks Up Visteon.
March 23, 2007... JPMorgan and Citigroup are seeking to amend a $1 billion term loan for Visteon Corp. The bank duo, which launched the new debt last Tuesday, will tack on an additional $500 million expiring December 2013. Price talk is at Libor plus 300 bps....

Deutsche Shops J.G. Wentworth Debt.
March 23, 2007... Deutsche Bank is shopping a $425 million credit facility for J.G. Wentworth LLC, which launched last Tuesday. The new debt package consists of a seven-year $325 million first lien-term loan and a seven-year $100 million second-lien term loan....

UBS Arranges Itron Acquisition.(Itron Inc. to acquire Actaris)
March 23, 2007... UBS is in the market with a new debt package for Itron, whose U.S. tranche launched last Thursday. The credit facility, which consists of a $115 million multicurrency revolver, a $605.1 million first-lien term loan, a E310 million first-lien...

MacDermid Alters Debt Structure.
March 23, 2007... MacDermid is altering its proposed credit facility, which is being arranged by Credit Suisse with Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, CIBC and Royal Bank of Scotland. Changes to the debt include a $100 million increase in the covenant-lite term loan,...

Sabre Trades Up Term Loan.
March 23, 2007... Sabre Holdings Corp. is amending its credit facility, which launched March 7, (BLR, March. 12, 2007). Arrangers Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank will transfer the $300 million second-lien facility to the $2.715 billion first-lien term loan,...

European Defaults Jump, A Little.
March 23, 2007... The speculative-grade default rate for European corporate bond and loan issuers, weighted by number of issuers, rose to 1.9% in 2006 from 0.8% in 2005, Moody's Investors Service reported in its annual European default study last week. Although...

Calyon Sues Mizuho, Ex-Staffers, For Damages.
March 23, 2007... In what some are calling unusual in a market where teams often hop companies enmasse, Calyon SG, a unit of French bank Credit Agricole, is in the midst of suing Mizuho Securities USA and several of its top CDO bankers for alleged damages to the...

ISDA Charged With Creating Noncancelable European Product.
March 23, 2007... The Loan Syndications and Trading Association announced at its London conference recently that the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has formed a working group that will determine the most appropriate approach to creating a...

Ratings Movers: US Airways Up On Merger, Carey International Driven Down.
March 23, 2007... US Airways Group soared last week when Fitch Ratings upgraded the company's $1.25 billion term loan to BB- from B. The ratings action was the result of the substantial improvements the airline has made to its credit profile since it exited...