High Yield Report articles from March 2007

High Yield Report archives from March 2007

PRICING: Some Find Univision Debt Peligroso.
March 5, 2007... Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications expected to price an oversubscribed debt package last week, even as some analysts and investors found the company to be paying poorly for its risk. The Los Angeles-based broadcaster's market...

PIPELINE: TXU: Bigger, Though Not Necessarily Easier in Texas.
March 5, 2007... The proposed buyout of Dallas-based energy company TXU Corp. by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group could be in for a bucking ride ahead. The acquisition, which would be the largest private equity deal in history, has already...

FEATURE - Not Ready For Subprime Players: Leveraged Finance Is OK, For Now.
March 5, 2007... The recent collapse of the subprime mortgage market has raised alarm among some leveraged finance market watchers that trouble could be on the horizon. This isn't because leveraged finance investors have been secretly investing money in...

News: It's A Hard Rock Life: Seminoles Price $525M In HY.(Seminole Hard Rock Cafe Hotel & Casino )
March 5, 2007... The Seminoles are the only American Indian tribe that has never signed a formal treaty with the United States government, and they are known as the "Unconquered People" because of it. The fighting spirit of the Seminoles was evident last week,...

Street Tightens Subprime Purse Strings.
March 5, 2007... Wall Street dealers, some of which are rumored to be taking substantial losses from the ailing subprime mortgage market, are tightening the purse strings - in part to limit their exposure to mezzanine ABS CDOs. Rumors were running rampant last...

News: Cat Bonds Get A Facelift Via A Synthetic CDO.
March 5, 2007... Societe Generale last week launched the first synthetic CDO of insurance and reinsurance entities on behalf of the world's fourth-largest reinsurer, Hannover Re. The deal, Merlin CDO I BV, applies synthetic CDO structuring techniques to the...

News: Banks Integrate FIG And Fixed Income.
March 5, 2007... Investment bankers dedicated to the financial institutions sector are making an extra effort to work closely with their debt capital markets teams to win a greater share of client business. In many instances, reporting lines are getting...

Market Buzz: Distressed Debt Bankers Depart CS in Europe.
March 5, 2007... Several distressed debt bankers in Europe left Credit Suisse last week, including London-based David Abrams, head of non performing loans, and Matthew Johnson, a Frankfurt-based distressed debt banker. According to the Financial News, they are...

Gainers & Losers: JC Penney/Fremont.
March 5, 2007... JC Penney Co. found a spot on the gainers list last week, despite the fact that its fourth-quarter net income fell to $477 million, or $2.09 per share, from $551 million, or $2.34 per share, a year earlier. The company's revenue grew 7% to $6.6...

Market Wrap: Cautious Investors Creep Back To Market.
March 12, 2007... The high yield bond market was in recovery mode last week, as the previous week's shock was still being digested and discussed. New issuances were met with investors who were more selective but still eager to put cash to work, though at least...

Pipeline: How About A Little Debt On The Barbie, Mate?
March 12, 2007... LBOs continue to send more debt deals galloping to the leveraged finance market. Now the home of the "Bloomin' Onion" could bring another, as one of the deals in the pipeline is a $2.7 billion debt package for OSI Restaurant Partners, the...

Q&A: BNP Paribas' John Ong: Bridging Continents.(Interview)
March 12, 2007... John Ong joined BNP Paribas in 2000 as head of European high yield origination and capital markets. He is now Global Head of High Yield for the French bank. He began his career with Banker's Trust and was quickly dispatched to exotic locales...

Market Buzz: New Century's Legal Woes Bring Ratings Downgrade.
March 12, 2007... New Century Financial Corp. saw its plethora of legal troubles translated to a downgrade last week, as Standard & Poor's lowered its counterparty credit rating to CCC from B. Its rating is on CreditWatch with negative implications, where S&P...

Gainers & Losers: Autocam/Delco Remy.
March 12, 2007... Autocam Corp. drove to the top of the gainers list last week. The metal component manufacturer eliminated more than $200 million of secured and unsecured debt by issuing $85 million in preferred stock and converting about $140 million worth of...

Market Wrap: Bonds Trade Down, Issues Keep Comin'.
March 19, 2007... Last week's high yield market priced a significant number of new deals, despite feeling the tremors of a shakier equity market. Last week saw one of the largest high yield issuances in history, even though high yield bond trading was...

PIPELINE- I'd Buy That For A Dollar: KKR Likes Dollar General.
March 19, 2007... Neighborhood convenience store chain Dollar General prides itself on saving its customers time and money. Yet the recent acquisition announcement from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and its accompanying debt, will mean anything but extra...

Sector focus: Health Care Is Healthy, But Carries Some Risk.
March 19, 2007... If the only two guaranteed things in life are death and taxes, then the health care and hospital industry represents a superb confluence of the two. The health care industry not only occupies an essential place in the human experience, it also...

Market Buzz: Wachovia Adds MDs For Media and Communications.
March 19, 2007... Wachovia Securities last week added William Bundy and John Schwarz as managing directors with a focus on the media and communications industry. Bundy joins Wachovia after 16 years at JPMorgan, where he was managing director and most recently...

News: Spectrum Battle Ends In Eyebrow-Raising Bond Exchange.
March 19, 2007... Atlanta-based Spectrum Brands was scheduled Friday to open an offer to exchange $350 million in 8.5% bonds for notably wider 11.25% toggle bonds - which will widen even further in semiannual increments - bringing to an end a battle with...

Loan News: Bank Duo Shakes Up Market With ARAMARK Reprice.
March 19, 2007... Less than two months after the deal first closed and before the company has even made its first interest payment, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are back in the market with a repricing for ARAMARK. The banks are attempting to tighten ARAMARK's...

Commentary: Hedge Fund Risk: The Intersection of Valuation and Redemption.
March 19, 2007... By Jonathan Sablone and Timothy W. Mungovan Institutional buy-siders who invest in hedge funds have long been concerned with redemption liquidity -that is, their ability to redeem an investment from a fund. Investors should also be...

Gainers & Losers: Spectrum/Technical Olympic.
March 19, 2007... Spectrum Brands found a spot on the gainers list last week following the announcement that it received a $1.6 billion loan commitment from Goldman Sachs and Bank of America to refinance its existing bank credit facility (see story, page 4). In...

MARKET WRAP: Where For Art Thou, Oh Widened Spreads?
March 26, 2007... The high yield market's promise of widening spreads in the wake of the subprime collapse and stock market slump has not particularly borne fruit, portfolio managers said last week. There was a small surge in the secondary market Wednesday, and...

PIPELINE: Leverage Spill On Aisle Four: A&P Rings Up Lots Of Debt.
March 26, 2007... In John Updike's short story, "The A&P," a young grocery store cashier abruptly quits his job at an A&P supermarket. He walks outside the store and is hit with the realization of "how hard the world [is] going to be to me hereafter." Today, it...

FEATURE: Middle Market Sees New Players, Stays Steady.
March 26, 2007... A constant stream of paper has increased the number of players in the middle and lower-middle market. While some mezzanine funds have grown in terms of their investment size, other funds have entered the market at the lower end. ...

Market Buzz: Moody's Downgrades Itron On Leverage.
March 26, 2007... In a move that affected approximately $1.3 billion of rated debt, Moody's Investors Service downgraded the corporate family rating of Itron to B1 from Ba3. Moody's also assigned a Ba3 rating to the new senior first-lien multicurrency credit...

News: Calyon Sues Mizuho, Ex-Staffers, For Damages.
March 26, 2007... In what some are calling unusual in a market where teams often hop companies enmasse, Calyon SG, a unit of French bank Credit Agricole, is in the midst of suing Mizuho Securities USA and several of its top CDO bankers for alleged damages to the...

News: European Defaults Jump, A Little.
March 26, 2007... The speculative-grade default rate for European corporate bond and loan issuers, weighted by number of issuers, rose to 1.9% in 2006 from 0.8% in 2005, Moody's Investors Service reported in its annual European default study last week. Although...

Gainers & Losers: Fremont General/ Bally Total Fitness.
March 26, 2007... Fremont General Corp. made the gainers list following the announcement that it had agreed to sell $4 billion in subprime real estate loans at a pretax loss of $140 million. The company has already received $950 million in cash from a sale to an...