High Yield Report articles from July 2008

High Yield Report archives from July 2008

Lev Finance Goliaths Challenged By Various Davids.
July 7, 2008... After two years of credit market gluttony that left them bloated on billions in debt, the bulge bracket investment banks have spent the first half of 2008 on a low-risk diet and a regimen of cost-cutting that has Wall Street shedding employees...

Issuance Slump Continues To Pressure CDO Managers.
July 7, 2008... CLOs continued to squeak out new issuance in the second quarter, making them the only corner of the U.S. CDO market to do so. The good news is that, of the new CLO deals to hit the market, several were structured from fresh loan assets-rather...

Quiet Q2 Heralds More Normal Euro Market.
July 7, 2008... With a mere $29 billion in underwritten volume, the European leveraged loan market ended the second quarter on a quiet note. Yet participants like Eric Capp, managing director and global head of leveraged capital markets at RBS in London, are...

CIT Dumps Home-Lending Business.(Lone Star Funds merged with CIT Group )
July 7, 2008... New York-based CIT Group said last week it has agreed to sell its home-lending business to Lone Star Funds. This business consists of $9.3 billion in assets and related servicing operations and was sold for $1.5 billion in cash, as well as Lone...

Correction.(Correction notice)
July 7, 2008... An article in the June 30 issue mistakenly identified the corporate home of energy company Calpine. Calpine's corporate offices are in Houston and San Jose, Calif. (c) 2008 High Yield Report and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ...

HY Market Slouches Into Summer.
July 7, 2008... It was a mercifully short week last week, and by its early end, high yield investors needed their vacation. Private sector employment decreased by 79,000 jobs in June, according to the ADP National Employment Report. Factory orders rose by...

First Half Of '08 Fails To Set Market Straight.
July 7, 2008... As the U.S. headed into the July 4 holiday, credit market investors were telling the world to "take this economy and shove it." The first half of 2008 has left investors with the same worries that the end of 2007 left them. Market participants...

Hartford's Bacevich Sorting Winners From Losers.
July 14, 2008... Mike Bacevich joined Hartford Investment Management Co., a subsidiary of The Harford Financial Services Group, at a time when leveraged finance was about to head into strong backwinds. Before joining the Hartford, he was head of the leveraged...

The $1 Million (Or Are We Back To $64,000?) Question.
July 14, 2008... Whether you care to define it as a recession, a downturn or a pickle, the big question we all face regarding today's economy is: When will it recover? Predictions have come and gone over the past several months, often getting shoved aside...

Bear Stearns Vets Find Homes At RBC And Jefferies.
July 14, 2008... RBC Capital Markets has appointed Jim Wolfe as managing director and head of U.S. leveraged finance. Wolfe will report to Blair Fleming, RBC's head of global syndicated and leveraged finance, and will be based in New York. Wolfe will partner...

Banks Tap Market For Quicksilver Resources.
July 14, 2008... Credit Suisse and Bank of America are gearing up to launch a $700 million second-lien term loan and $300 million in senior notes due 2015 for Fort Worth, Texas-based natural gas and crude oil producer Quicksilver Resources. Credit Suisse is the...

Summer HY Market Is Not So Hot.
July 14, 2008... There were no fireworks in the high yield market last week as investors and traders returned from their picnics to find an economy still heading south. As of midday Thursday, trading was flat and volumes low for the week. The prospect of...

The Price Is Wrong: Who To Blame For CCC Overpricing?
July 14, 2008... At a time when high-risk credit should be flying off the shelves at bargain basement prices, the riskiest high yield bonds are not priced where they ought to be in light of where they have been in past credit cycles, according to investors. And...

Get Your CB Out, Covenant Transport Eyes Debt Package.
July 21, 2008... Breaker one-nine, breaker one-nine, this here's Rubber Duck. You gotta debt package at the next exit. You copy, Pig Pen? OK, so maybe there wasn't a debt package in C.W. McCall's 1975 hit "Convoy," but there might be for Covenant...

HY Primary Down, But Not Out.(high yield primary market report)(Market share report)
July 21, 2008... A nearly two-week long drought in the high yield primary market came to an end last week. But market observers don't expect a full recovery until there are signs of an improving economy and more clarity about the state of the banking system....

SIV Won't Trump Secondary's Hold On Primary.
July 21, 2008... Two things happened last week that should have boosted leveraged loan primary issuance-or at the very least been a catalyst for change. One was the launch of a $7 billion structured investment vehicle, a deal led by Goldman Sachs. The other was...

Highland Bulks Up And Heads East.
July 21, 2008... Highland Capital Management is bulking up its institutional sales and investor relations team in New York and plans to open an Asia-Pacific regional office in Singapore on Aug. 8, the firm said last week. Paul Adkins, a Highland managing...

Back With a Vengeance: Mezzanine Fills Debt Void.
July 21, 2008... Mezzanine financing, which was the redheaded stepchild of the debt markets during the heyday of easy credit and mega-LBO deals, is back. After record-setting fund raising in the first half of the year, mezzanine may be poised to take the place...

HY Investors Shun Risk, Reward Blood.
July 21, 2008... High yield investors last week continued to flock to stable securities and looked to take advantage of low prices on bonds, as the steady drumbeat of grim economic news continued. Inflation rose at the fastest pace in 17 years last month,...

Banks To Launch Avaya TLB, Ready Notes.
July 28, 2008... Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan are hoping to connect with investors this week in order to sell part of a $3.8 billion term loan B for Avaya, the Basking Ridge, N.J.-based provider of communication systems to businesses and government agencies. ...

Should Bank Analysts Hire Headline Writers?
July 28, 2008... Last week's news that BankAtlantic Bancorp filed suit against Ladenburg Thalmann banking analyst Richard Bove, accusing him of defamation and negligence over a recently published research report, makes me uneasy. Sure banks are feeling a...

European Banks, Groups: Viva La Resistance!
July 28, 2008... The European Commission has proposed changing the Capital Requirements Directive, Europe's Basel II, by adding a rule that would require banks to retain 10% of a deal they've underwritten. Although it affects banks on another continent, the...

Strategists To HY PMs: Get Thee Some Loans.
July 28, 2008... For high yield bond portfolio managers looking to make the most out of a poor-performing sector, investing in a leveraged loan or two might provide a means of doing just that, UBS strategists say. Low-dollar loans can be useful tools for...

Investors Get Serious Coupon On XM Satellite.
July 28, 2008... XM Satellite Radio beamed down a $700 million bond offering last Thursday, with the largest coupon the market had seen in more than a year. JPMorgan was the lead underwriter. The company had initially planned to issue $400 million on Wednesday...

Investors Chew Over Wrigley Deal.
July 28, 2008... A bank group led by Goldman Sachs last Wednesday began marketing a $3.6 billion term loan B for the iconic gum maker William Wrigley Co. Price talk last week was at Libor plus 375 bps, with an OID of 97 and a 3.0% Libor floor. Investors...

HY Market Rolls With The Punches.
July 28, 2008... The high yield secondary market saw reasons for cheers and for jeers last week, as the junk index climbed even as investors played defense and prepared for potentially more damaging economic news to come. The week began with investors...

Goldman Raises $10 Billion To Buy Senior LBO Loans.
July 28, 2008... Goldman Sachs has raised a $10 billion fund to invest in loans backing leveraged buyouts, according to published reports, as it takes advantage of a gap in the financing markets created by the credit crisis. The fund will buy senior loans and...

Strategists To HY PMs: Get Thee Some Loans.
July 28, 2008... For high yield bond portfolio managers looking to make the most out of a poor-performing sector, investing in a leveraged loan or two might provide a means of doing just that, UBS strategists say. Low-dollar loans can be useful tools for...