High Yield Report articles from February 2004

High Yield Report archives from February 2004

US Company News.
February 2, 2004... Buffets Holdings added its name to the list of companies loading up on debt to pay out dividends either to their private equity sponsors or to their sponsor's limited partners. Tacking on an additional $90 million in net debt to its capital...

US/Europe.
February 2, 2004... Labeled the cream of the crop by some, few would dispute that Inmarsat has been the strongest deal to price in Europe this year. But despite the fact that this leading provider of global mobile satellite communication services is headquartered...

LBOs.
February 2, 2004... As the long-awaited leveraged buyout rush finally kicks in, a surprise name is leading the charge: UBS, which started the year in 11th place on Thomson's US leveraged syndicated loan league table, is lead-manager on four of the five LBO-driven...

The Word Is.
February 2, 2004... With deals continuing to fly out the door on both sides of the Atlantic, and an increasing number of cash-rich investors angling for a slice of the new issue pie, it is not surprising that complaints about lousy allocations have been on the...

Europe.
February 2, 2004... Bondholders would be unwise to agree to the terms of a debt restructuring announced last Thursday by Swisslog, a global provider of integrated logistics solutions for optimizing production and distribution processes. Analysts familiar with the...

US Company News.
February 2, 2004... The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's new $300 million term loan came and went in a syndication flash last week, as the add-on tranche was blown out in a matter of hours by investors, oversubscribed three times over. A banker familiar with the...

Profile.(AEG Partners L.L.C.)(Company Profile)
February 2, 2004... There may be fewer high profile restructuring cases these days, but AEG Partners LLC, a strategic advisory firm offering comprehensive restructuring, turnaround and crisis management services for troubled companies, is not concerned about any...

Market Buzz.
February 2, 2004... The European High Yield Association (EHYA) is holding a forum on Feb 12 to discuss the wave of new issues from cable issuers expected to come to market this year. The forum, titled, "UK and European Cable, a new chapter?" will discuss whether...

Sector Analysis.
February 9, 2004... While the energy sector has substantially recovered from the volatility of 2001-2002, the upcoming year is still a do-or-die affair for several major energy companies, which need to hit the bond markets with sizable new issues while contending...

US/Europe.
February 9, 2004... Private equity sponsors may have been able to take advantage of the red hot US high yield market to issue bonds to pay themselves fat dividends in recent months, but it seems European investors are not prepared to play ball. In fact, bond...

Europe.(Eircom's bond with bondholders)
February 9, 2004... Eircom bondholders managed to secure an extension to last Wednesday's deadline for approving plans to refloat the company, giving rise to hopes among some bondholders that they would be able to wrest less aggressive terms for themselves from...

The Word Is.
February 9, 2004... Bull markets make everyone a little crazy. Bankers start pushing ever-more dubious deals into the market, and investors caught up in the positive sentiment put risk on the back-burner, loading up on deals that wouldn't make it past their radar...

CDOs.(Monument Park CDO Ltd)
February 9, 2004... The Blackstone Group wowed the structured finance world last week when it launched the largest collateralized loan obligation (CLO) since 1998. At $1.022 billion, Monument Park CDO Ltd. is twice the size of most of the CLOs launched in the...

LBOs.(Shareholders of Polypore Inc held by IntelTech Group Inc and GTCR Golder Rauncer)
February 9, 2004... It was a busy week for leading private equity investor Warburg Pincus. The news of its circa 700 million buyout of Irish print and packaging business Clondalkin was swiftly followed with the announcement that it will acquire a leading global...

Profile.
February 9, 2004... With the meltdown of the telecom, media and technology (TMT) sector in 2001, many TMT analysts at the bulge bracket and buyside firms found themselves at worst out of a job, and at best, having to re-focus their analysis either towards...

Market Buzz.(financial services)(Brief Article)
February 9, 2004... Charlie Cassel, high yield and emerging market portfolio manager at Standard Bank Asset Management has left the company. Sources said that Bill Green who works in the London office would assume his responsibilities. BNP Paribas is beefing...

Leveraged Loans.(Aladdin Capital Management)
February 9, 2004... After wrapping up its Landmark III CDO (collateralized debt obligation) less than two months ago, Aladdin Capital Management is busy again putting together its very first loan fund, which is expected to total more than $500 million. "After...

US Company News.
February 16, 2004... Calpine Generating Company (CalGen) hit the market last week with a $2.3 billion refinancing package. The deal received mixed investor reaction to both sides of the bank and bond debt package, although senior lenders appeared more comfortable...

Merger.
February 16, 2004... Comcast Corp.'s hostile bid for Walt Disney Co. has bred fevered speculation among analysts and investors about the next potential future telecommunication consolidation targets, with many bets lining up on EchoStar Communica-tions Corp. and...

Private Equity.
February 16, 2004... M&A activity has been on the rise, and private equity and leveraged buyout firms have been behind many of the credit market's recent leveraged transactions. But a new regulation that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to...

The Word Is.
February 16, 2004... The high yield market jumped back into action last week, following Fed's Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony before Congress. His speech, which essentially quashed expectations for a near-term rise in interest rates as he reiterated the Fed's...

CDOs.
February 16, 2004... A positive credit trend occurred in European CDOs in 2003 compared to 2002, according to Standard & Poor's latest transition study. Despite a higher overall percentage of downgrades last year, analysts say the increased number of upgrades...

Sector Analysis.
February 16, 2004... After a year crammed with financings helping utilities avoid bankruptcy, lenders might be tempted to view the sector through a glass half full. From a credit perspective, however, that could be a mistake. Standard & Poor's noted recently...

Profile.(ABN Amro )(Company Profile)
February 16, 2004... With increasing consolidation among banks in the US loan market, an issuer's ability to obtain an unfunded revolver is not as easy as it used to be. That's because these days fewer banks maintain enough balance sheet capacity to support the...

Market Buzz.
February 16, 2004... With earnings season about to kick off in earnest, analysts and investors were waiting to hear the upcoming results from France's largest specialty chemicals maker, Rhodia (B1/B), last Friday. The company has already warned that results could...

Pantry Plans Redux For Lower Rates.(Brief Article)
February 16, 2004... Credit Suisse First Boston and Wachovia Securities are planning to launch syndication of a refinanced $440 million credit facility for The Pantry. The deal is intended to provide increased financial flexibility and lower interest rates for the...

Strategy.
February 23, 2004... It may come as no surprise that trading activity in the high yield bond market succumbs to a "Days of the Week Effect," but Deutsche Bank's high yield research team recently conducted a study to prove just that. Having noted that most of a...

Market View.
February 23, 2004... When struggling companies like Level 3 Communi-cations Inc., Nextel Com-munications Inc. and Calpine Corp. were able to tap the junk bond market to pare down their gargantuan debt loads last year, their underwriters, including Citigroup,...

US Company News.
February 23, 2004... An upcoming deal from Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is testing the high yield bond market's tolerance for offerings meant to stave off a troubled company's looming bank debt maturities. So far, sources said, investors appear to be lining up to...

The Word Is.
February 23, 2004... There is nothing like news of a huge merger to add some spice into the market. Investors had hardly caught their breath after Comcast's surprise $66 billion bid for Walt Disney before Cingular hit with its own 11th hour bid for AT&T Wireless...

US Company News.(Calpine Generating Co.)
February 23, 2004... Investor commitment levels for Calpine Generating Co.'s (CalGen) $1.3 billion term loan were still sluggish last week with subscription levels only increasing to just north of $700 million. This is after commitments totaling about $500 million...

Sector Analysis.
February 23, 2004... Beside fears that questionable issuers are entering the market, many are concerned that concentrations of troubled product are growing, both by rating type and industry. One high yield banker said an upcoming trouble spot could be in the...

Profile.(GE Corporate Financial Services' Bank Loan Group)(Company Profile)
February 23, 2004... Patience has become a virtue for GE Corporate Financial Services' Bank Loan Group (GE CFS BLG) as it seeks to maintain an aggressive portfolio management strategy, even in the face of the US loan market's dire lack of supply. However, the group...

Market Buzz.
February 23, 2004... After a long wait and much speculation, news about UK cable operator NTL's circa GBP3.2 billion refinancing package emerged last week. According to sources, the new deal could include GBP2.2 billion of senior debt and around GBP1 billion worth...

Opinion.
February 23, 2004... I took my younger daughter to shoot some baskets in the park last weekend. We came across a toddler sitting in the middle of a waterlogged, muddy pit, which had apparently started life as a sandbox. A young lady, apparently his nanny, was...

This Week's Gainers & Losers: Revlon/Goodyear.
February 23, 2004... Revlon topped Advantage Data's list of weekly gainers last Thursday, on the back of a stream of positive credit news. The company's 9% and 8.125% notes, both due 2006 soared above par to 103.625, added roughly 30 points on their price from the...