High Yield Report articles from April 2007

High Yield Report archives from April 2007

Market Wrap: High Yield Market Waits For Other Shoe To Drop.
April 2, 2007... The high yield market reacted cautiously to more bad economic news last week. Mild trading characterized the secondary market, as announcements about housing and a warning from the Federal Reserve chairman painted an uncertain picture of the...

PIPELINE: Leverage Finance Markets May Implant $7B Into Biomet.
April 2, 2007... Leveraged buyout firms have not been shy recently about going into markets that were previously thought off-limits. Highly technical companies that require complex navigation of technology, law and policy were once the fiefdom of narrowly...

FEATURE: Second Liens Not Guaranteed Second Place.
April 2, 2007... The proverbial middle child of the credit family, the second-lien loan appears the number-two heir to the recovery throne, behind the first-lien - read: first born - yet in front of sibling number three, the high yield bond. The second lien's...

Market Buzz: JPM Merges Euro Junk and Loans Under Orssten.
April 2, 2007... JPMorgan is merging its European high yield and loan capital markets businesses in London under the direction of Kristian Orssten. The merger is specific to Europe and in response to continued convergence that is occurring in the European high...

Gainers & Losers: Merisant/Beazer.
April 2, 2007... Merisant Co. made the gainers list last week as its 2006 numbers were better than expected. Its net cash from operations more than doubled to $21.6 million. In addition, cash and cash equivalents jumped 31% to $23.7 million, while total debt...

ROUNDTAble: The Restructuring Elite Say Their Next Boom Is Coming.(Discussion)
April 2, 2007... First of a Two-Part Series A group of restructuring pros recently sat down with HYR sister publication IDD to discuss the state of the market, and while consensus was hard to reach on most topics, they had little trouble agreeing on one:...

Europe: Overseas Storms Hit European High Yield.
April 9, 2007... Turbulence in the wider financial markets - the unwinding of the hedge fund carry trade, which pulled down Asian markets, and the subprime mortgage debacle in the U.S. - had an impact on the European high yield market during the first quarter....

U.S. League Tables: First Quarter Puts 2007 On Track To Beat 2006 HY Volume.
April 9, 2007... The U.S. high yield league tables for the first quarter paint a picture of a market that is on track to beat last year's record-setting volume. U.S. high yield corporate debt volume totaled $38.6 billion in the first quarter, according to...

Feature: Bondholders Get Bold As Covenants Get Slippery.
April 9, 2007... Though covenant troubles are no new phenomenon, bondholders are facing increasingly complex and problematic structures, and the potential for covenant abuse is rising along with the number of large M&A deals, with those undertaken by leveraged...

Market Buzz: High Yield Manager Patel Departs Pioneer For Another Firm.(Pioneer Investments's Margaret Patel resigned)(Calyon Corporate and Investment Bank appointed David Weinstein and Stephen Elliott)(Tribune Co. (Chicago, Illinois)'s securities ratings)
April 9, 2007... Portfolio manager Margaret Patel has left Pioneer Investments after almost eight years at the Boston-based firm. The Boston Globe first reported her departure. Patel previously worked for the New York-based Third Avenue Group, which was...

Gainers & Losers: Olympic/Freemont.
April 9, 2007... Technical Olympic USA joined the gainers column last week. Investors were not reacting to any new or spectacular news but appeared to be taking advantage of lower overall prices after the company's bonds received a beating for two weeks. Also,...

ROUNDTAble - The Final Chapter: Negotiations In Restructuring.(Interview)(Discussion)
April 9, 2007... Second of a Two-Part Series A group of restructuring pros recently sat down with HYR sister publication IDD to discuss the state of the debt market, looming bankruptcies, private equity's role in restructuring and how things just might...

Pipeline:Tribune Buyout To Deliver Newsworthy Debt Package.
April 16, 2007... The recent pairing of real estate tycoon Sam Zell and newspaper and broadcast empire Tribune Co. may seem like an odd coupling. But if approved, the unique transaction - structured to take place in a two-step process - will present an...

Market Wrap: Ear To The Ground, Market Waits And Sees.
April 16, 2007... The high yield market was relatively quiet last week, waiting for a clearer picture of the economy's future to come into focus. Housing woes and speculation about a potential interest-rate hike were the forces at work in the market. Despite the...

Company Focus: Wornick Woes: Food Company Starved For Liquidity.
April 16, 2007... The Wornick Co., one of the companies that provide food to America's troops, is itself starved for liquidity after a series of setbacks have left it in danger of violating its covenants and threatens the company's very survival. The dire...

Profile: Hancock's Calavritinos Invests Outside The Bonds.
April 16, 2007... For Arthur Calavritinos, the insight gained from investing beyond high yield bonds actually improves a portfolio manager's high yield performance. "I invest in equities, I invest in bank debt, convertibles; I'm a full investor. I use all...

Sector Focus: Retail To Continue Spending Spree.
April 16, 2007... Aggressive financial activities such as leveraged buyouts, dividends and share repurchases have demonstrated that relatively few retailers are focused on materially paying down debt to migrate toward a higher rating category, according to a...

Commentary: Shareholder Activists Get By With A Little Help From A Lot of Leverage.
April 16, 2007... Debt is king in the new world order. Marking the latest trend in shareholder activism, disgruntled shareholders and beguiled stock analysts admonish against accepting going-private proposals, gambling that buyers will raise their prices....

Market Buzz: Columbus Nova Snags Trimaran Team For New Fund.
April 16, 2007... Columbus Nova announced last week that it has formed a Special Opportunities Fund to invest in middle-market companies through all levels of their capital structures, and the firm recruited a team from Trimaran Capital Partners to manage the...

Market Wrap: High Yield Market Motors, No Big Bumps.
April 23, 2007... The high yield market held steady last week as economic indicators failed to signal any significant change in the current climate. The market is poised to go the way of the economy, and will either hum along contently or crash and burn. In the...

PIPELINE: Laureate Education Seeks $2.2 Billion For Divisive LBO.
April 23, 2007... An educational company hopes to get the attention of leveraged finance investors before the end of the quarter in order to finance a management-led LBO. Laureate Education plans to price $2.2 billion in high yield bonds and term loans to help...

Mezzanine: Churchill Financial Taps Into Mezzanine.(Churchill Capital Inc.)
April 23, 2007... New York-based commercial finance and asset management company Churchill Financial completed its acquisition of Churchill Capital's mezzanine finance business last week. Through the merger, which will solidify two business platforms that have...

Market Buzz: Carlyle Snags JPMorgan Pro For Asia.
April 23, 2007... Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group announced last week that Eric R. Mason will join as managing director in its leveraged finance group. In his new role, Mason, who is currently managing director and co-head of JPMorgan syndicated &...

NEWS: Investors Toss Their Chips On Las Vegas Sands.
April 23, 2007... Las Vegas Sands has been a name in the credit market for some time now, and investors have long been gambling on the hotel, gaming and resort development company to win positive returns. The company's latest offering, a $5 billion credit...

Philanthropy: Wall Street Gives Back Through Urban Dove.
April 23, 2007... Taking the Metro North from New Canaan, with a transfer to the subway line at Grand Central, provides little glimpse at the struggle many New York City youth face in their day-to-day lives. Because of this, it can be difficult for Wall Street's...

News: Spreads Due To Widen As Risk Rises, Analysts Say.
April 23, 2007... History tells us that credit spreads are due to widen, but so far the credit market is continuing on with business as usual, even though economic growth may not be as robust as previously thought. At the same time, risk in the credit market is...

Gainers & Losers: Fremont / Intelsat.
April 23, 2007... Fremont General settled near the top of the gainers list last week, after it agreed to sell roughly $2.9 billion in subprime mortgages. While the loans are being sold at a discount, resulting in a pretax loss of about $100 million for the...

STRATEGY: Bondholders Feel Heat From Buyout Fever.
April 30, 2007... Buyouts and M&A deals do more than just bring new issuances to the high yield market. They can also give the bonds of current holders a thorough drubbing if they become part of a company with a lower credit rating or get downgraded with the...

PIPELINE: Community Health Acquisition Keeps Eyes On Health Care.
April 30, 2007... With the success of the initial HCA buyout in November 2006, the company's subsequent repricing this February and Health Management Associates' $2.4 billion debt-funded dividend, also in February, it seems investors are gobbling up credit in...

Sector Focus: Aero & Defense Companies Aim For New Mix.
April 30, 2007... Some of the products that aerospace and defense companies make can travel so fast that they break the sound barrier, but companies that build these fast machines know that a slowdown is on the way. And their preparations for a future downturn...

EDITOR's NOTE: EDITOR's NOTEWhat If PE Throws A Party, And Nobody Comes?(buyouts by private equity funds)(Editorial)
April 30, 2007... The buyout boom keeps banging and rumbling along, breaking records as it goes. Year-to-date U.S. volume for announced targets was $172.40 billion as of April 18, according to data provider Dealogic. That's nearly three times the $66.29 billion...

Market Wrap: HY Market Crowded With Bad News Bulls.
April 30, 2007... High yield investors know how to take bad news well. Last week saw slow-to-moderate trading on the high yield secondary market and negative economic news push 10-year Treasury prices up, but investors showed they were not scared away by the...

NEWS: Six Flags Unleashes Newest Facility, Leverage Climbs Higher.
April 30, 2007... With summer only weeks away, Six Flags is gearing up for what it hopes will be a profitable season, especially after last year's rain-drenched one. The New York-based regional theme park company, known for monstrous roller coasters such as...

FEATURE: Lower Equity Returns May Impact Euro CLOs.
April 30, 2007... It's by no means an immediate concern, just something that's out there, but nonetheless, the diminishing returns on CLO equity are not going unnoticed in Europe. For some leveraged loan bankers, they're a barometer for the future health...

Market Buzz: Evergreen Names Patel Lead Portfolio Manager.(Evergreen Investments L.P., Margaret Patel)
April 30, 2007... Evergreen Investments announced last week that Margaret Patel has been named managing director and lead portfolio manager on the Evergreen Strategic Income Fund, the VA Strategic Income Fund, the Evergreen Balanced Fund and the VA Balanced...

Gainers & Losers: Calpine/Tembec.
April 30, 2007... Federal-Mogul Corp. made the gainers list last week after it reported a first-quarter profit of $5 million compared to a loss of $68 million last year. The company, which is currently operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, said sales...