High Yield Report articles from April 2006

High Yield Report archives from April 2006

Market view: 2nd lien lenders prepare for combat.
April 3, 2006... During a recent Calpine Corp. bankruptcy hearing, one legal observer in attendance noted something very much out of the ordinary. In bankruptcy proceedings there are typically two main tables. Around one sits representatives of the debtor,...

US company news: Primary market firms up as Q1 ends.
April 3, 2006... Spring fever has finally hit the US high yield primary market. After months of languishing, the market sprang to life in the last week of the quarter, with eight deals pricing by press time on Thursday - including four drive-bys on Wednesday...

European Company News: Hedgies, I-Grade Lend A Hand To M-Real.
April 3, 2006... Scarce as new issuance has been in the European high yield market recently, few high yield investors were hungry enough to buy M-Real Corp.'s new bonds. Nonetheless, on March 24, the Finland-based forest and paper products company was able to...

Market View: Refi Risk To Increase As Rates Stay High.
April 3, 2006... After the Federal Reserve Board raised short-term interest rates for the 15th consecutive time last week, to 4.75% from 4.5%, the end to the tightening cycle remains unclear. But one thing market players agree on is that rates are not likely...

Credit: Benign Default Environment Persists.
April 3, 2006... Although default rates are expected to slowly climb throughout the course of the year, market players can still look forward to another year of relatively low default rates, according to Moody's Investors Service. In an article that will...

Emerging Markets: Credit Suisse Introduces Latin American Corporate Bond Index.
April 3, 2006... In line with the increasing demand for Latin American corporate debt from a host of institutional investors across the globe, Credit Suisse has introduced the first performance benchmark index exclusively devoted to non-sovereign debt issues...

AMG Data Services.
April 3, 2006... High yield mutual funds reported $199.8 million in outflows during the week ended last Wednesday, according to AMG Data Services. For the week, 146 funds reported inflows, while 226 funds reported outflows. (c) 2006 High Yield Report and...

Gainers & Losers: Pliant/Northwest.(Lucent Technologies Inc., Pliant Corp. and America West Airlines Inc. post gains in the stock market)
April 3, 2006... Pliant Corp. was on the gainers list last week, having reported that 2005 sales were up 11% compared with its sales in 2004. It has also managed to sell several unprofitable divisions, as well as turn around its struggling operations in Mexico....

Market Buzz.
April 3, 2006... The last of Guggenheim Capital's once promising high yield bond staff - 25 strong at one point across sales, trading and research - were unceremoniously fired a few months back. The fledgling business was off to a decent start, lead managing a...

Market view: Primary set to fall back in favor.(low returns in financial market has helped big secondary names to offer attractive deal)
April 10, 2006... Many investors have continued to look to the secondary market for high yield returns in recent months, especially as new issue yields have remained low, and issuance, until two weeks ago, had been sparse. This has allowed big secondary names...

European League Tables: A Promising Quarter For European Junk.
April 10, 2006... The European high yield market's first quarter provided what optimistic bankers said were a number of signs that the sector could be on the verge of one of the healthiest years in its history. For one, European high yield volume in the...

US League Tables: First Quarter Sees Investment Bank Comeback.
April 10, 2006... The US dollar first quarter high yield league tables for 2006 proved that a sure-footed lead is not guaranteed for any one bank's high yield origination team. Citigroup nabbed the number one spot, overtaking its commercial banking counterparts,...

CDOs: Moody's To Track CDO Equity Performance.(collateralized debt obligation )
April 10, 2006... Moody's Investors Service unveiled a new service last month aimed at helping a burgeoning class of US cash collateralized debt obligation (CDO) equity investors - mostly hedge funds - track how well their investments are performing. The rating...

US Company News: Burlington Downsizes Bond Sale.
April 10, 2006... Bain Capital and its acquisition target, Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp. apparently prefer to shop for debt in the leveraged loan market more than in the high yield market, as evidenced by their decision to call off a planned sale of...

AMG Data Services.(reports inflow of $50 million)(Brief article)
April 10, 2006... High yield mutual funds reported a net inflow of $50 million for the week ended last Wednesday, according to AMG Data Services. This is the largest inflow to the asset class since the week ended December 7, 2005, and only the fourth occurrence...

Gainers & Losers: GMAC/Qwest.(General Motors Acceptance Corp. and Calpine Corp. post gains)(Brief article)
April 10, 2006... As of last Wednesday night, General Motors Acceptance Corp. (GMAC) bonds posted gains in trading for the week. However, it was a bumpy ride for these and General Motors Corp. (GM) bonds after GM announced the sale of a 51% stake in GMAC to...

Market Buzz.(Stone Harbor Investment Partners)(Deutsche Bank appoints)(American Century Investments undergoes reorganization)
April 10, 2006... New York-based specialty fixed income manager Stone Harbor Investment Partners announced last week that it had commenced operations with $8.5 billion of assets under management, comprising 30 institutional accounts. The independent investment...

US Company News: Avis Deal Rides Through Market.
April 17, 2006... The car rental business is one of the few auto-related businesses to remain favored by high yield investors. This was evident last December when Hertz Corp. successfully brought a multibillion dollar, three tranche deal to the high yield...

Sector Analysis: Nowhere But Down For Homebuilding?
April 17, 2006... Homebuilders are finding that their phenomenal performance in 2005 is a tough act to follow in 2006. Numbers so far this year indicate that the industry's momentum is diminishing. New home sales dropped 8.5%, year-over-year in the first two...

Distressed Debt: Issuers Change Up Stakes With DDEs.
April 17, 2006... Substantial numbers of bond issuers in financial trouble are now turning to the use of distressed debt exchanges (DDEs) in an attempt to reduce their debt burdens. This offers bondholders a high-stakes gamble - they can accede to an issuer's...

Syndicated Loans: Credit Suisse Bolsters 2nd Lien Market Share.
April 17, 2006... Credit Suisse may no longer claim the title of top dog of the US junk bond market, but the firm has snagged the chief arranger title of another high yielding debt product: second lien loans. While at the end of 2005, the bank ended the year...

Banks: BNY Trust Biz Keeps Growing.(The Bank of New York)
April 17, 2006... The Bank of New York (BNY) sure likes the corporate trust business. In fact, it has decided to more than double its presence there by swapping its retail banking business for JPMorgan's trust business. The combination will create the largest...

Profile: Shenkman And MEMBERS Find More Value In Single-B Bonds.(Shenkman Capital Management )
April 17, 2006... Single-B rated high yield bonds are not usually more coveted by high yield fund managers than their double-B rated counterparts. But that's not the case for New York-based Shenkman Capital Management (SCM). The high yield fund manager, which...

Gainers & Losers: Calpine/Spectrum.
April 17, 2006... Calpine Corp.'s bonds traded up last week after a bankruptcy court judge extended the company's exclusivity period for filing a reorganization by about eight months. The extension will bode well for Calpine's plans to sell off about 25% of its...

Market Buzz.(Barclays Capital Inc., Societe Generale Investment Banking and Guardian Investor Services appoint)
April 17, 2006... Barclays Capital announced last Tuesday that it had hired eight new staffers to support the bank's nascent US leveraged finance push. The team has grown from two members to 20 in just over a month. Peter Glaser and Todd Ragland are joining...

Market View: Slow Growth For Canadian Junk.
April 24, 2006... More than a year after the lifting of Canada's Foreign Property Rule, not a whole lot has changed in the Canadian speculative grade bond market. The regulation, which had capped foreign investment by Canadian pension and retirement savings...

Distressed Debt: Investors Urged To Scrutinize Indentures.
April 24, 2006... High yield investing has always been fraught with deep complexities that involve much more than just assessing an issuer's credit quality. If they are initially overlooked, factors outside the realm of an issuer's actual creditworthiness and...

US Company News: Dana's Asset Sales Back On Track.
April 24, 2006... Dana Corp. is revising its effort to sell at least two businesses it had been marketing before the Toledo, Ohio-based auto parts manufacturer filed for Chapter 11 on March 3. "The engine hard parts and fluids businesses will come into the...

Derivatives: Name concentration up for US CDS.(credit default swap rates automobile industry)(Statistical data)
April 24, 2006... The top 10 most widely referenced entities within the burgeoning US credit default swap (CDS) market accounted for 43% of all trades last year, excluding the indices. This is compared with only 27% in 2004, according to Fitch Ratings. The...

US Company News: XM Emerges With Refi Deal.(Brief article)
April 24, 2006... XM Satellite Radio Holdings is tendering its pricey high yield bond debt and refinancing it with a $250 million revolver and new bond debt. Washington-based XM announced it had launched a tender offer on April 13 for its 14% senior secured...

Profile: PENN Capital Focuses On Interplay Within Capital Structures.
April 24, 2006... PENN Capital Management, an investment management firm that caters to institutional and high net worth investors, firmly believes that individual corporate securities do not exist in a vacuum. In fact, at PENN, there is no such thing as an...

AMG Data Services.(Brief article)
April 24, 2006... High yield mutual funds reported $147.2 million in outflows for the week ended last Wednesday, according to AMG Data Services. This is the second week in a row that a net outflow from high yield funds has occurred, following a $151 million...

Gainers & Losers: Potlatch/Adelphia.(Potlatch Corp., Dura Corp. and Foamex International post gains at the stock market)(Brief article)
April 24, 2006... Potlatch Corp. topped the gainers last week, with several of its bonds achieving gains of six points or more. In February, the Washington-based wood products company posted good fourth quarter 2005 results, and then paid a $15 million dividend...

Market Buzz.(Imperial Capital Group L.L.C., Deutsche Bank AG (Frankfurt, Germany) and IMS Capital Management appoint)
April 24, 2006... Imperial Capital has hired Marc Bilbao and Scott Farnsworth, both formerly of Giuliani Capital Advisors, for its Los Angeles office. The additions are part of the firm's continued expansion efforts to grow its corporate finance/restructuring...