High Yield Report articles from January 2004

High Yield Report archives from January 2004

US Company News.(Column)
January 5, 2004... Unable to restructure its debt out of court, Solutia, a spin-off from Monsanto's former industrial chemicals business, filed for bankruptcy last month. Solutia and 14 of its US subsidiaries - constituting $2.85 billion in assets - filed for...

Market View.(Column)
January 5, 2004... Beating the 25% (Europe) and 29.83% (US) returns achieved in the high yield market in 2003 will be, for the most part, impossible, and most investors are realistic enough to know that, in terms of returns, 2004 will be a more moderate year....

Europe.(Column)
January 5, 2004... It may have taken more than half a dozen years, but 2003 will go down in the record books as the year the European high yield market finally began realizing the potential initially envisioned by the advance contingent of US HY bankers that...

The Word Is.(Column)
January 5, 2004... Between the Parmalat fiasco in Europe, and the discovery of the first case of mad-cow disease in the US, going vegan,' (eliminating meat and dairy credits from portfolios) might look increasingly appealing to high yield portfolio managers....

US Company News.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley are planning to shop a financing package that backs BCP Crystal Acquisition GmbH & Co.'s 3.1 billion takeover of Celanese AG. BCP is a German limited partnership controlled by funds that are advised by The...

Credit.(Moody's Investors Service)
January 5, 2004... Recovery rates on defaulted corporate bonds continued their upward trajectory in 2003 after hitting an historic bottom in 2001, according to a new report by Moody's Investors Service. After peaking at around 50% of par value in 1997,...

Profile.(Advantage Data Inc.)(Company Profile)
January 5, 2004... Introducing a new product to seasoned investment professionals is never easy, but the team of professionals at Advantage Data Inc. (ADI) has not only created one of the largest and most accurate sources of commingled high grade, high yield and...

Marker Buzz.
January 5, 2004... Leading US provider of syndicated loan data, LoanX, Inc. is being acquired by Mark-it Partners Ltd. (Mark-it), the definitive credit pricing information company. The merger of the two companies should come as great news to credit investors,...

Opinion.(Editorial)
January 5, 2004... She said they were an embarrassment to our children. The "she" was my wife. The "they" was my favorite pair of old, faded, and comfortably ragged Levi's blue jeans. These old Levi's bore the scars and stains of nearly 25 years of my life....

Syndicated loans.
January 12, 2004... The Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) and Standard & Poor's announced last week that the long-awaited project to extend the CUSIPs numbering system to the syndicated loan market has finally been completed. The market's need...

US Company News.(telecommunications)
January 12, 2004... Last year it was Georgia-Pacific Corp. and Houghton Mifflin Co., the year before, Owens-Brockway Glass Container Inc., and the year before that, a trio of telecom borrowers. The high yield market has started every year since the millennium with...

LBOs.
January 12, 2004... The energy market, especially the utility sector, could experience a wave of leveraged buyouts this year, even of companies that until recently had been left for dead. Many bankers predict 2004 will be a year of major consolidation in all...

the word is...(bankers)
January 12, 2004... It is becoming a trend. December ends on a high note, with European bankers talking up the amount of new issuance due in January and promising an abundance of deals for investors to put new money to work in. Then, as the year gets underway,...

Distressed Debt.(Brief Article)
January 12, 2004... In a move that indicates growing US investor interest in European bank debt, GE Corporate Financial Services' (GE CFS) Bank Loan Group, a division that traditionally invests in US par and distressed debt and buys portfolios, is planning to...

CDOs.(Collateralized Debt Obligation)
January 12, 2004... Though some argue the "no brainer" buys in the relatively new secondary CDO market disappeared six months ago, structural features of securitization have, in some cases, created a timing/rating arbitrage, whereby savvy investors can pick up...

Profile.(PNC Financial Services Group)(Company Profile)
January 12, 2004... Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, PNC Financial Services Group chooses instead to focus intensely on what it does well - being a dominant middle market bank. That's according to Douglas Shaffer, senior managing director of PNC...

Market Buzz.
January 12, 2004... According to a Moody's report released last week, the high yield market experienced a significant easing in the downward rating trend in 2003, combined with a steep decline in the number and size of issuers defaulting. The rolling total number...

league tables.
January 12, 2004... No real surprises on the year-end league tables this year. Credit Suisse First Boston held onto the top spot as the high yield market's leading underwriter, as it has for the past four years. It ranked first, not only for US high yield, but...

Market View.(dollar)
January 19, 2004... Call it what you will, a buck, a greenback, dead presidents, or cabbage (as it is known in Russia), but the dollar, and its current weakness, have been the topics of much discussion recently. Over the past year the dollar has fallen...

US/Europe.
January 19, 2004... After such a fantastic 2003, it is tempting to sit back and hope that the good run continues well into the next year. But just as it is prudent to assess the potential risks that lie ahead before embarking on a new venture, conscientious high...

US Company News.
January 19, 2004... Easing near-term cash demands, Centennial Communications is hitting the market with a $1 billion refinancing package, which includes a private placement of $250 million in senior notes, due to price Friday, January 16. Price talk for the...

The Word Is.(stock market trends)(Brief Article)
January 19, 2004... The market truly got underway last week - eight deals priced last Thursday alone in the US, and Europe kicked off with a blow out from Iron Mountain, (another deal from Concordia Bus was expected to price at the end of the week). Although...

Syndicated Loans.
January 19, 2004... Timing for Atlantic Broadband Finance's $150 million 10-year, non-call five, senior subordinated notes offering firmed up last week. The company will take its 144a deal on the road between January 20 and January 28. Merrill Lynch( books)...

US Company News.
January 19, 2004... UBS and Bear Stearns are moving along through the debt markets to complete the $255 million financing package for The Cypress Group's LBO of Communications and Power Industries (CPI) from Leonard Green & Partners. After investors heavily...

Profile.(David L. Babson and Company)(Company Profile)
January 19, 2004... With so many different funds looking for a piece of the high yield pie these days it is important for a fund to distinguish itself from the rest of the pack. Describing its strategy as "contrarian" is certainly one way the high yield team at...

MARKET BUZZ.(Iron Mountain issue)(speculative grade default rates)
January 19, 2004... Boston-based records and info management company, Iron Mountain was the first deal to price in Europe this year bringing a GBP150 million of senior subordinated notes, due 2014, last Thursday. Interestingly, neither the low coupon, nor the fact...

OpinionAnxious.(bonuses are awarded on Envelope Day and its stressful time)
January 19, 2004... It's that time again. We've been waiting a whole year for that precious moment when anxious little cherubs with eager, gleaming faces, dreams of bounty, and nervous fingers tear open those packages to see what that plump, rosy-cheeked,...

ING Considers Launch of New CLO That Includes Distressed Basket.(ING Capital Advisors and collateralized loan obligation )
January 19, 2004... ING Capital Advisors, an investment adviser specializing in managing floating rate senior secured loan portfolios and high yield bonds, has been talking to underwriters and plans to launch a new collateralized loan obligation (CLO) by the end...

People Moves.(career development)
January 26, 2004... Bonus time is approaching, and it's the time of year when market professionals start looking at other career opportunities. This year, with the leveraged finance market as hot as it is, participants expect to see a large number of people switch...

US Company News.
January 26, 2004... A determined deleveraging drive has Westar Energy Inc., the largest electricity company in Kansas, firmly on track to regain its investment grade rating in 2004. Last week, the company said it paid down some $297 million of its existing...

Credit.
January 26, 2004... The stench of Enron's accounting games may still be in the air, this time wafting through the credit-linked notes market - a warning to investors not only in the those complicated financial instruments but also in more plain-vanilla loans and...

The Word Is.(hedge funds)
January 26, 2004... Like it or not, hedge funds have become an increasingly prominent component of the high yield market in recent years. The huge numbers of fallen angels that have descended into the high yield space have brought with them hedge funds, which are...

CDO.(collateralized debt obligations)(Parmalat Finance Corp.'s securities fraud)
January 26, 2004... Compared with the billions of euros implicated in the Parmalat scandal and the untold losses already suffered by investors, a R$130 million (US$46 million) securitization in Brazil might seem inconsequential. But to some financial players in...

US Company News.(bank debt)
January 26, 2004... After receiving its fifth bank waiver in less than seven months, BMC Industries, an eyewear lens and television component manufacturer, is looking at all strategic options to refinance or restructure its $145 million credit agreement, said Brad...

Profile.(Picus Capital)(Company Profile)
January 26, 2004... Absorbing oneself in a good story is one of the best ways to pass the time, they say. And that is exactly what Bill Healey, CEO of Picus Capital and guest contributor to HYR, has decided to do. That's because "story credits" are precisely the...

Market Buzz.(business expansion)
January 26, 2004... AEG Partners LLC, the premier strategic advisory and turnaround firm to distressed middle market companies, announced its expansion into the Eastern United States last week, by opening of a New York office. Part of its strategic expansion in...

CDOs.(collateralized debt obligations)
January 26, 2004... With six collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) under its belt and the team complete, RBS Greenwich Capital is looking to grow into a powerhouse within the CDO sector in 2004. Although the focus of the RBS Greenwich team will remain on its...