High Yield Report articles from April 2003

High Yield Report archives from April 2003

Despite $50M Bridge, Fleming Faces Tough Challenges.
April 7, 2003... Bankrupt grocery distributor Fleming Cos. last week received a $50 million interim debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing commitment from lead arrangers Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan as a bridge to a permanent $150 million DIP financing package....

Restructuring The Slurpee Makers: Overleverage and overexpansion haunt convenience stores.
April 7, 2003... Super-sizing can kill you. That lesson has been lost on McDonalds' addicts, but it continues to be driven home to convenience stores as more and more chains face refinancings and bankruptcies. Problem is, because the properties of so many...

War, Economy Keep Q1 Loan Volume Low.
April 7, 2003... A brutal first quarter in the syndicated loan market, at least for most lenders, is unlikely to improve much throughout the rest of the year, and while the war with Iraq has played a part, lenders attribute much of the slowdown to more...

Markets Want Vivendi; CSFB Tops Q1 US League Tables, Deutsche's Number Two.
April 7, 2003... Vivendi Prices to Enthusiastic Market Vivendi was the name on almost every high yield participant's lips last week, both in the US and in Europe. The company, which is borrowing a whopping E3.5 billion through a combination of bonds...

Demand Outpaces Supply in US; Europe Waits for Vivendi.
April 7, 2003... US A Good Week The US secondary market opened strong last week, and continued to be better bid through the week, with little supply pressure, traders said. There was better buying across the board and volumes were better than...

Altria/Philip Morris: Blowing Up in Smoke?(lawsuits hurt bonds)
April 14, 2003... Philip Morris USA, a subsidiary of Altria Group Inc., was on the brink of going up in smoke last week. The company was to post a $12 billion bond for the right to appeal a $10.1 billion damage verdict handed down by an Illinois judge, a move...

LBO Pro Airs His View on Market.(leveraged buyouts, Jonathan Bland)(Interview)
April 14, 2003... The overhang of the war and prolonged economic uncertainty have placed a damper on deal flow in the US leveraged buyout (LBO) market thus far this year, but LBO pros say there's a great deal of activity waiting to happen once the cloud of...

Fallen Angels are Top HY Performers.
April 14, 2003... The high yield bond market's recent lucky streak is continuing, as bonds from fallen angel issuers that crashed from high grade down to junk status have, instead of dislocating market performance, become some of the high yield market's best...

US Deals Price Tight; Fresenius is in the Cards for Europe.(briefs)
April 14, 2003... US Oversubscribed Iron Mountain Prices Just North of 7% Iron Mountain easily priced a B2/B-rated, $300 million drive-by offering of 7.75% senior subordinated notes at 104 to yield 7.066 via Bear Stearns. The records storage and...

US Remains Status Quo, Europe Moves Lower.
April 14, 2003... US Early last week, the US secondary market felt heavy, traders said, with most bonds off by a half point or a point. Even though traders expected buyers looking to buy on dips to come in at the long end of the capital structures, volume...

United Teetering Toward DIP Default Threatens Industry Lenders.(United Airlines, debtor-in-possession)
April 14, 2003... The news last week that United Airlines has reached agreements to cut labor costs was certainly welcomed by the company's debtor-in-possession (DIP) lenders, but those agreements remain tentative. As air travel continues to drop, lenders...

WorldCom Reorg Pressurizes Competitors to Follow Suit.(corporate reorganization)(Industry Overview)
April 21, 2003... WorldCom, a company that few wanted to touch not too long ago, looks set to make a triumphant return. Not only is the company expected to emerge from bankruptcy with a balance sheet wiped nearly clear of all debt, but WorldCom and companies...

Love em or Not, Hedge Funds Boost HY.(high yields, analysis)
April 21, 2003... Hedge funds have not been a major component of the European high yield investor base, yet they played a strong part in ensuring the success of the recent high yield bond issued by media giant Vivendi. The technical bid for the new bond was so...

TECO Deal Addresses US Volatility.(TECO Energy, funding from Merrill Lynch)
April 21, 2003... Under pressure from the ratings agencies, TECO Energy recently signed an agreement with Merrill Lynch in which the investment bank committed to provide $350 million in funding to the company, if it's needed. The contingency financing borrows on...

It's Busy on Both Sides of the Atlantic.(securities industry, bonds; US primary market)
April 21, 2003... US Even with bond markets closing at two p.m. last Thursday, the US primary market managed to price six new deals last week, all of which were gobbled up by investors and quickly traded up in the aftermarket, sources said. Ethyl,...

US/Europe in Buying Mode.(securities industry, US secondary market)
April 21, 2003... US Everyone's buying, buying, buying! Although there was some activity, the US secondary market last week was mostly flat, according to traders. That said, though, anything played was pretty much going up, traders said. For...

For the Bold and the Creative, Airlines still Offer Value.
April 28, 2003... Most US airline companies are currently mired deep in junk territory, and bankruptcies and restructurings are increasingly becoming the order of the day. Some companies like Continental have restructured several times already, and last week,...

Toxic Junk CDOs Spur Real Estate Craze.(collateralized debt obligations)
April 28, 2003... High yield bonds, which for a long time were the collateralized debt obligation (CDO) market's favorite kind of collateral, are no longer the in thing. These days, wary CDO investors who have seen one too many high yield CDO being...

Vultures' Pari Passu Claims Quashed.(National Financiera, S.N.C. v. The Chase Manhattan Bank)
April 28, 2003... A court decision three years ago appeared to give vulture investors a leg up in receiving pre-bankruptcy payments from borrowers equal to other lenders, even though they purchased the debt at steep discounts. Another decision earlier this...

Chemical Deals Suit US Market Taste.(U.S., European briefs)
April 28, 2003... US The long holiday weekend meant very little by way of deals for the US primary market last week: Only two deals had priced by press time and both were super drive-bys. Millennium Chemicals, Inc. easily priced a drive-by Ba1/BB+...

Delta, Continental, Prices Move Up.(U.S., European briefs)
April 28, 2003... US There was a solid tone to the US secondary market last week. Prices rose across the board exhibited as high yield mutual fund flows gained momentum last week and bids on a range of sector strengthened, trader said. Cable deals,...

A Specialist in Sharing: Houlihan's New Co-CEO Represents.(Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, Jeff Werbalowsky)
April 28, 2003... Both the Old and New Face of the Business It's a good thing Jeff Werbalowsky learned to share back in kindergarten, since divvying up has become something of a vocation for the outspoken ex-lawyer. For the last 15 years, he has shared...