High Yield Report articles from April 2005

High Yield Report archives from April 2005

Derivatives.
April 4, 2005... The growth explosion in the credit derivatives market over the past couple of years is no secret to anyone, but to date, there has been little said about the increased volume of credit swaptions (options on single name and index credit default...

Europe.
April 4, 2005... With General Motors Corp.'s (GM) debt teetering on the brink of high yield status, nervous investors and traders are peering across the pond to see if any of the European auto manufacturers have any disturbing surprises of their own, and the...

Sector.
April 4, 2005... Private equity investments, anticipated global consolidation and the later stages of an economic expansion are leading a handful of major investment banks to place bets on the industrials sector, as evidenced by a healthy round of hiring. Such...

Mezzanine Mezz.(Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization, financial markets)
April 4, 2005... Just a few years ago, many mezzanine lenders wouldn't even think of providing debt financing for lower middle market companies - such deals were often too labor-intensive and risky to be worth their while. However, many mezzanine players have...

Market View.(high yield market )(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... The current setbacks experienced in the high yield market might not be a signal of a change in the credit cycle (and is rather a correction), but market players should still expect to see a more sustained bearish phase in the future, says...

Loan market Profile.(GE Commercial Finance-Corporate Financial Services)
April 4, 2005... GE Commercial Finance-Corporate Financial Services' (GE CFS) bank loan trading operation in Europe has been officially underway since January of this year, and new managing director and head of European secondary markets, Neeraj Mehta, is...

Gainers & Losers: Delta/Intermet.(securities markets, Delta Air Lines Inc., Northwest Airlines Corp.)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... After seeing its bonds slide for weeks, Delta Air Lines, Inc. dominated the gainers chart, as a number of the airline's bonds traded up last week. The 10.33% notes due 2006 had the most significant jump, rising by 11.375 points to trade at...

Market Buzz.
April 4, 2005... The Bond Market Association's (BMA) April 20 annual membership meeting - a significantly large gathering of fixed income professionals focusing on key topics confronting the global fixed income marketplace - will feature US Treasury...

Rankings:.
April 11, 2005... It was no small news in the clubby world of high yield when, at the end of last year, Credit Suisse First Boston slipped to number two in the league tables, forfeiting its long-held crown as the king of junk bond underwriting. This year's...

Market View:.(high yield bond market)
April 11, 2005... What began as a strong first quarter for the US high yield bond market slowed down all of a sudden in the middle of March and finished on a rather weak note, sources said. General Motors Corp. (GM) has been the name on everyone's mind and,...

Spotlight On Inflation:.
April 11, 2005... It might be called the post-inflation theory. The thinking, dominant in the markets for some time now, is that the inflationary forces that historically ruled the bond markets are problems of the past. This school of thought has argued...

Spotlight On Inflation:.(bond markets)
April 11, 2005... If inflation ends up rising sharply enough in the near future to become a threat, what type of bond market will develop to meet it? Under recent market conditions, even the most desperate have been able to tap the debt markets, particularly in...

Spotlight On Inflation:.(bond markets)(Brief Article)
April 11, 2005... The bond markets have begun to pay closer attention to inflation, as evidenced by the growing interest lately for inflation-protected securities. While corporate bond issuers have not been offering many inflation-linked products of late, that...

Gainers & Losers: Adelphia/JC Penney.(stock markets, Adelphia Communications Corp., Bombardier Inc., J.C. Penney Corporation Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 11, 2005... Adelphia Communications Corp. had a strong week last week, as Cablevision Systems made a $16.5 billion cash bid for the company. As a result, a number of the company's bonds traded up, including its 8.125% notes due 2003, which rose to 86.875...

Market Buzz:.(Tom Crystal of Morgan Stanley left London office to work in United States, HSBC Asset Management appoints Richard Lindquist, Jefferies and Company Inc. appoints Evan S. Templeton )
April 11, 2005... Tom Crystal, co-head of high yield sales at Morgan Stanley in London, has left the London office and is coming back to the US to work on the high yield desk in New York, according to sources. Crystal will help fill the void in the US on the...

Firms:.(Highland Capital Management acquired ING Capital Management Ltd. from ING Wholesale Banking)
April 11, 2005... Investment advisor Highland Capital Management announced last week that it has completed its acquisition of London-based ING Capital Management, Ltd. from ING Wholesale Banking. The acquisition, which includes Highland's acquisition of ING's...

Europe: Not All Euro PIKs Are Created Equal.(payment-in-kind notes)
April 18, 2005... Many high yield investors in Europe have shied away from payment-in-kind (PIK) notes deals lately due to the poor secondary market performance of PIKs issued earlier this year. But some investors contend that a few bad apples do not necessarily...

US Company News: Could Ford Be Another Possible HY Neighbor?
April 18, 2005... Some investors are fretting that a downgrade of Ford Motor Co.'s debt to high yield status, especially if the debt of General Motors Corp. (GM) suffers the same fate, could have an untidy effect on the corporate debt markets - dumping billions...

US Company News: Junk Bonds Make Another Comeback.
April 18, 2005... The junk bond market may not be back to its old self after a major pullback in March that put the brakes on a two-and-a-half-year rally. But more than $1.2 billion in offerings for three oil-and-gas companies last Wednesday and Thursday - plus...

Firms: CSFB Leveraged Investments Group Expands Into Europe.(Credit Suisse First Boston LLC)
April 18, 2005... Last week, yet another US-based collateralized debt obligation (CDO) business announced that it has expanded into Europe in order to capitalize on the burgeoning leveraged loan, high yield bond and mezzanine markets in the region. Earlier this...

Regulation: BMA Contests Restriction Of Mark-Ups.(Bond Market Association)
April 18, 2005... The Bond Market Association (BMA) filed a comment letter with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this month in response to a proposed rule interpretation regarding pricing guidelines from the National Association of Securities...

Sector Analysis: US Retail: Department Stores, Supermarkets Still Strained.
April 18, 2005... Relatively solid earnings during last year's holiday season and a reasonably sound economic environment have not appeared to be enough to cure the US retail sector's slumping credit quality. While some areas of the sector are seeing their...

Gainers & Losers: Owens Corning/Ford.(stocks)
April 18, 2005... Both Owens Corning and Armstrong World Industries, Inc. made it on the gainers list last week after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced that he was very close to reaching a deal on pending asbestos...

Market Buzz:.(briefs)(Pilgrim America CBO)
April 18, 2005... Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. announced last week that it has hired four new members to its high yield group within the global markets division. Mark Colm and Steven Rosen are joining the bank as managing directors in high yield sales, while...

Market View: Issuers Choose Loans Over Pricey Bonds.
April 25, 2005... Last week, Navarre Corp. announced its plans to tap the loan market for a $165 million credit facility to finance, in part, its pending acquisition of FUNimation Productions, Ltd. However, a bank deal apparently wasn't the company's first...

US Company News: Calpine Under Fire from Bondholders.(Calpine Corp.)
April 25, 2005... Calpine, one of the high yield bond market's major issuers, is caught between a rock and a hard place. In order to pay off creditors and sweeten itself up for a possible takeover bid, the energy company is risking incurring the wrath of the...

US company news: WorldCom Fallout May Spark More Due Diligence.(MCI Inc.)
April 25, 2005... The fallout from WorldCom Inc.'s collapse, far from being over, looks set to continue slamming into Wall Street underwriters and debt issuers for years to come. The immensity of WorldCom's dissolution forced firms into a position of settling...

Syndicated Loans: Public Side Players Face Challenges Handling MNPI.
April 25, 2005... The investor landscape of the leveraged loan market is much more complex than it used to be. That's because the market is now flooded with players that invest in securities - such as high yield bonds - as well as loans. And still many more...

Credit: Few Fallen Angels In Q1.
April 25, 2005... A mere seven investment grade issuers slipped to junk status during the first quarter of 2005, but this year could be a record year in terms of the amount of debt slipping to speculative grade, as General Motors Corp. (GM) is teetering on the...

Market Buzz.
April 25, 2005... Europe has come a long way in integrating its financial markets, and the European Union wants to continue to work with the US to further achieve this goal, said Alexander Schaub, director general of internal market and services for the European...

Gainers & Losers: Armstrong /GMAC.(Armstrong World Industries Inc.)(General Motors Acceptance Corp.)(Brief Article)
April 25, 2005... Armstrong World Industries Inc.'s and Owens Corning's bonds continued their ascent last week as bipartisan support for an asbestos bill grew on Capitol Hill. Owens Corning saw a number of its bond trade up last week, including its 7.5% notes...