High Yield Report articles from July 2003

High Yield Report archives from July 2003

US Company News.
July 7, 2003... A new name, new money, better ratings - what could be better for a far-from-glamorous ice making company? One year down the road, and voila: Packaged Ice has been reincarnated as Reddy Ice, and is ready to tap the high yield market for...

US.
July 7, 2003... The US high yield market certainly had a great run in the first half of 2003. More than $20 billion poured into monthly reporting high yield mutual funds, according to AMG Data, and banks generated a whopping $66.5 billion in total...

Europe.
July 7, 2003... Origination teams have been busy taking advantage of the European high yield market's strength over the past months to bring deals to market and to boost their position on the European high yield corporate debt league tables. Although still...

The Word Is.(first half high yield bond market reports)
July 7, 2003... Without a doubt, it was a tremendous first half for the high yield market. Thomson Financial's league tables (included in this issue) show that through the end of June 2003, US high yield market volume was almost double what it was for the...

View.
July 7, 2003... If anyone still needs proof that European high yield investors have cash to put to work, the success last week of HeidelbergCement's EURO700 million, seven-year high yield bond transaction should put any doubts to rest. The impressive...

Sector.
July 7, 2003... Demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been increasing steadily over the past couple of years and has fueled the need for additional pipelines and terminals. Some project financiers have anticipated the trend, and are working toward...

Profile.(Scudder's Phil Condon)
July 7, 2003... Phil Condon has been the lead portfolio manager for Scudder's high yield tax-free fund since its inception in 1987, and for investors keen on high yield municipal bonds, the going has been great. The fund is up 2.4% year-to-date, while five-...

Credit Derivatives: Can a Growing Market Meet A Growing Challenge?
July 7, 2003... The growth of the credit derivatives market over the past few years has been beyond most expectations, and it looks set to keep on growing. However, in this next phase of its development, the credit derivatives market will need to...

US Company News.
July 14, 2003... Despite the travails of the energy sector, Calpine Corp. has received a whopping roughly $3 billion in orders for its new offering, which was expected to price at press time last Thursday. The as-yet unrated roughly $3 billion transaction,...

US Company News.
July 14, 2003... Over the past few months, dethroned denim king Levi Strauss's bonds have suffered from high volatility, trading as low as the high 70s and as high as 103. Not surprisingly, there are many nervous bondholders out there, but the company's fortune...

Europe.
July 14, 2003... A year ago, market conditions were adverse enough to force private equity firms Apax and Hicks Muse Tate & Furst to postpone international directories company Yell's IPO. Since then, however, conditions improved enough to convince the two...

The Word Is.
July 14, 2003... Summer is hot upon us, and by most accounts, the M&A and IPO markets are also heating up. Both markets have been quasi dormant over the past two years. A slew of bad deals followed by Enron's demise, and the ensuing focus on companies'...

Syndicated Loans.
July 14, 2003... The bigger they are, the further they fall. At any rate, that's the message emanating from the US syndicated loan league tables for the first half of the 2003, when loan syndication king JP Morgan saw its overall proceeds volume plummet 28%...

Ratings.
July 14, 2003... Managers of credit, high yield included, have often complained that rating agency decisions lag the market. High yield investors, who tend to invest for the future, want ratings that reflect more immediate changes in a company's credit cycle,...

Profile.(Anton Simon of Putnam Investments Inc.)(Interview)
July 14, 2003... After several consecutive years of negative returns and weak new issuance, the European high yield market may well have turned the corner, says Anton Simon, managing director of European high yield at Putnam Investments. Simon, who has...

The Fat Man Sings...(the perils of roadshows)
July 14, 2003... I'm a fan of classical opera. Yeah, I know. Some operas seem like they'll drone on forever. You see some obese man in a powdered wig and gilded costume bawling in a distant language about his frail and delicate lover. Meanwhile, the dainty...

US Company News.
July 14, 2003... Privately-held WCI Steel defaulted on its June 1 coupon, and its 30-day grace period is now long past. But the company is still hanging on, expecting a cash infusion from its parent company The Renco Group (owned by financier, Ira Rennert, of...

US Company News.
July 21, 2003... It's no wonder, market players were saying last week, that Citigroup led the fight that pitted Mirant's bankers against the company's bondholders: The move, which resulted in the company listing $11.4 billion of debt in a bankruptcy filing last...

US Company News.
July 21, 2003... Last week, American Cellular (AC) and Dobson Communications announced their plans to restructure AC's $1.6 billion in debt, including the full repayment of the company's bank credit facility. But while bondholders of both companies seemed...

Europe.
July 21, 2003... If the European high yield bond market is to realize its long overdue promise as a reliable alternative asset class for European investors and a consistent source of alternative subordinated debt and growth capital for European companies, a...

The Word Is.
July 21, 2003... Here at High Yield Report, we have been keeping tabs on the important issue of structural subordination in Europe as it has gained prominence there. This week, one of our main stories focuses on a special report on that topic put out recently...

US Company News.(Charter Communications Inc.)
July 21, 2003... Charter Communications announced last week it plans to sell $1.7 billion in new senior high yield notes under rule 144A to refinance debt maturing in 2005 and 2006. Proceeds will be used to fund a below-par tender for all of the 4.75% and 5.75%...

US/Europe.(ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd.)
July 21, 2003... With $3.2 billion of debt due this year and an additional $2.3 billion due between 2004 and 2005, ABB's refinancing obligations are considerable. But unlike other fallen angels with stretched balance sheets that have taken advantage of the...

Profile.(FiberTower Corp.)(Company Profile)
July 21, 2003... "Telecom? Start up? Infrastructure - What?!" That's pretty much all that FiberTower Corp.'s founders David Leeds, Harpinder Madan, Erico Botto and Scott Brady heard when they first approached investors a little more than two years ago with...

MARKET BUZZ.
July 21, 2003... RBC Capital Markets has hired Jeffrey P. Kelly as managing director in its leveraged finance group, working under Kenneth J. Kencel, head of leveraged finance. Kelly previously worked as a managing director in the acquisition finance and...

US Company News.
July 28, 2003... Last week, Northwestern Corp.'s management paid the company's New York-based bondholders a visit, with news of its plan to ask shareholders for approval to issue an additional 250 million shares of common stock and preferreds, or the...

LBOs.(leveraged buyouts)
July 28, 2003... Dex Media West is getting ready to launch a $1.6 billion high yield offering to complete the buyout of Qwest Communications' directories business. But the leveraged buyout deal has been struggling with approvals from states that have...

Europe.
July 28, 2003... A couple of asset disposals and new contracts can do wonders for a company's credit profile, it seems. Not too long ago, the outstanding bonds of Ascom, a Swiss manufacturer of telecommunications and service automation equipment, were...

The Word Is.(ranking underwriters by quality not quantity)(Editorial)
July 28, 2003... I dread the ends of financial quarters. It isn't just that I spend hours poring over excel spreadsheets, trying to explain to our production department how to lay out the underwriter rankings for our quarterly issue, or that I need to proofread...

US Company News.
July 28, 2003... Dynegy Inc. expects to price a planned $1.5 billion offering of senior secured notes early next week, and proceeds from the sale will be used to refinance debt. Dynegy also announced that ChevronTexaco Corp. has agreed to restructure a $1.5...

Rankings.(underwriters)
July 28, 2003... Underwriter league tables are bound to upset some, regardless of the criteria used to compile them. Thus far, the easiest and most common method of putting together league tables has been to rank underwriters either by the number of deals they...

Profile.(ABN AMRO Asset Management)
July 28, 2003... If it's a fresh, honest yet experienced approach to the high yield market you're after, then the team at ABN Amro Asset Management may be just what you're looking for. Building on its success in the global high yield arena, ABN Amro Funds...

Focus Finally Prices.
July 28, 2003... After what has seemed an inordinate amount of time, Focus-Wickes finally priced its GBP260 million-equivalent (sterling and euro tranches), eight-year non-call four mezzanine notes issue last Wednesday, via lead managers ING Barings and Royal...

Derivatives.(Bank One's second quarterly financial statement)
July 28, 2003... Two of the largest syndicated lenders - and presumably largest users of credit derivatives - reported significant market-to-market losses in the second quarter on credit derivatives used to manage their loan portfolio risk. In recently...