High Yield Report articles from May 2006

High Yield Report archives from May 2006

US Company News: How Much Is Aztar Really Worth?
May 8, 2006... As the bidding war for Aztar Corp. entered into its fifth week last Friday, many investors began to anticipate a Pyrrhic victory for the winner. What began innocently enough in mid-March as a proposed acquisition by Pinnacle Entertainment of...

Restructuring: Beware Of Bank Debt In The Next Downturn.
May 8, 2006... As the high yield bond market continues to lose business to the leveraged loan market, many speculative grade companies may end up with a heftier portion of their debt at the senior level. This has sparked worries among high yield investors...

European Company News: Euro New Issue Market Sees More Action.(TDC A/S and ISS A/S buyouts)
May 8, 2006... After several quiet months in the European primary high yield market, the last two weeks have finally brought a resurgence of new deal flow. The three tranche, multibillion euro funding for the buyout of Danish telecommunications company...

Market View: Dynegy, Reliant Reduce Hedging.(Reliant Energy Inc.)
May 8, 2006... Houston-based independent power producers Dynegy and Reliant Energy are taking a new and controversial approach to their business. Both are taking the aggressive step of no longer hedging commodity or power prices extensively, a move that has...

Bankruptcy: High Court Rejects Owens Petitions.(Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.)
May 8, 2006... The US Supreme Court ended the year-and-a- half-old legal battle over the proposed use of substantive consolidation in the Owens Corning bankruptcy reorganization on May 1 when it rejected two petitions asking it to review a ruling by the US...

Distressed Debt: Investors Patiently Wait For Next Rush Of Euro Distressed Supply.
May 8, 2006... To say the least, investors in European distressed debt have had little by way of supply over the past year. But some say the tide is now beginning to turn, and even if the feast is not imminent, distressed investors can begin to polish their...

AMG Data Services.
May 8, 2006... For the fourth consecutive week, high yield bond funds reported a net outflow, with outflows of $88 million reported for the week ended last Wednesday, according to AMG Data Services. (c) 2006 High Yield Report and SourceMedia, Inc. All...

Gainers & Losers: Visteon/Revlon.
May 8, 2006... Both Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines Corp. reported improved occupancy rates for April, with Delta logging a 77.6% capacity and Northwest an 84.9% capacity. Also aiding the airlines was the price of oil falling below $70 per barrel. Also...

Market Buzz: Dalton Closes Two Distressed Debt Funds.(Dalton Global Opportunity Fund and Dalton Distressed Debt Fund of Dalton Investments L.L.C.)
May 8, 2006... Dalton Investments is closing two distressed debt funds and will return about $300 million in assets to the funds' investors as soon as possible. One of the funds, the Dalton Global Opportunity Fund, opened in 1999 and produced an annual growth...

Restructuring: Distressed investing gets more complex.
May 15, 2006... Creditors of bankrupt companies are often at each other's throats, and the changing face of bankruptcy negotiations has only increased the tensions between rival lenders. This increasing divergence of creditor interests has made the process of...

US company news: SunCom bondholders log a victory.(SunCom Wireless)
May 15, 2006... When is a dividend payment really an asset sale? Such was the riddle posed to the struggling wireless service provider SunCom Wireless by its senior bondholders earlier this year. And the answer, it appears, was compelling enough for SunCom to...

Regulation: Pension reform may penalize HY companies.(high yield)
May 15, 2006... Pension reform legislation has languished on Capitol Hill for so long that many high yield investors, whom such legislation may particularly affect, haven't really followed its evolution lately. But buried amongst the legal and accounting...

Syndicated loans: Rising Libor has yet to hurt loan issuance.(London Interbank Offered Rate to effect insurance industry)
May 15, 2006... The relentless rise of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) so far this year is causing players in the bank loan markets to wonder whether their sectors' infatuation with products pegged to interest rates, such as red-hot second lien...

CDOs: Moody's exposes CDO asset trends.(Moody's Investor Service provide report on collateralized debt obligation )
May 15, 2006... Moody's Investors Service said earlier this month that it will begin providing monthly reports on the individual asset exposures by collateralized debt obligation (CDO) category and vintage within 650 US cash flow transactions issued between...

Profile: Avenue Capital completes third structured vehicle.
May 15, 2006... Dick D'Addario, senior portfolio manager at the New York-based investment firm Avenue Capital Group, and his colleagues have just closed a new $500 million collateralized loan obligation (CLO), their company's third such vehicle thus far. ...

AMG Data Services.
May 15, 2006... High yield mutual funds reported $104.6 million in net outflows for the week ended last Wednesday, according to AMG Data Services. This is the fifth consecutive week of outflows from high yield funds. (c) 2006 High Yield Report and...

Gainers & losers: Owens C./Maytag.(Armstrong World Industries Inc.)(Armstrong World Industries Inc.)(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... The dark cloud of asbestos litigation may be lifting in the not-too-distant future for Owens Corning and Armstrong World Industries. Bonds issued by both companies shot up in trading last week, buoyed by Owens Corning's progress and likely...

Market buzz: Tennenbaum hires Imperial's Moyer.(Tennenbaum Capital Partners appoints Stephen G. Moyer of Imperial Capital Bank)
May 15, 2006... Tennenbaum Capital Partners has hired Imperial Capital's Stephen G. Moyer as a director. In his new position, Moyer - who was previously the director of research at Imperial, focusing on high yield, distressed, convertible, bank debt and equity...

Market View: Low Volatility For Rest Of '06?(high yield market)
May 22, 2006... The high yield market of 2005 has gone down in history as a volatile year in terms of both trading and issuance. The year ultimately netted less than 3% returns to investors, according to most indices. So it's not surprising that as 2006...

US Company News: Litigation Risk Looms Over Reynolds.(Reynolds American Inc. acquiring Conwood Company L.P., planning to introduce high yield bonds)
May 22, 2006... Usually when a company plans to add $3.2 billion in new debt to its balance sheet, the hike in leverage is a bondholder's biggest concern. But this does not appear to be the case with Reynolds American, the tobacco giant that plans to add...

Regulation: Are The Revised CSFT Rules Still A Headache?(complex structured finance transactions)
May 22, 2006... Having gotten an earful from Wall Street about a proposal that, if implemented, could massively increase financial institutions' regulatory obligations for any structured deal that fits under a broad umbrella category of "complex structured...

Derivatives: New ISDA Documentation Boosts Recovery Swaps.(International Swaps and Derivatives Association)
May 22, 2006... The burgeoning credit derivatives market keeps sending out offshoots in new directions. Earlier this month, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) issued a new template for documenting recovery swaps - or recovery-lock...

Firms: Carlyle Builds Leveraged Finance Staff.(Carlyle Group L.P. appointed John C. Stomber and Matthew Cottrell)(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... The Carlyle Group announced last week that it has hired John C. Stomber as a managing director in the leveraged finance group in New York. Stomber previously worked at Cerberus Capital Management as a managing director focused on structured...

Profile: RBC To Ramp Up HY Sales,Trading Business With New Hires.(RBC Capital Markets appointed Mickey Spillane, Jeremy Goldman, Kevin Cleary )
May 22, 2006... RBC Capital Markets' high yield sales, trading and research staff has seen a number of new faces join its team since the bank was officially rebranded last November - after it folded the RBC Dain Rauscher business into RBC Capital Markets. In...

Gainers & Losers: Movie Gallery/GMAC.
May 22, 2006... Movie Gallery made the gainers list last week on the back of its encouraging first quarter earnings. The company's 11% notes of 2012 gained nine points to trade at 71.5. Movie Gallery reported its net income more than doubled compared with the...

Market Buzz/Data: DB Selects Flannery To Head LCM Americas.(David Flannery joins Deutsche Bank)(leveraged capital markets)(Apollo Management L.P. appointed James C. Zelter)(Barclays Capital Inc. appointed Drew Doscher )
May 22, 2006... Deutsche Bank announced last week the appointment of managing director David Flannery to a new role. Flannery will take over as the head of leveraged capital markets in the Americas, a role encompassing both the underwriting and distribution of...

Observation: Creating Value In Distressed Investments.
May 22, 2006... With more and more hedge funds becoming active players in the distressed markets these days, paths to create value go well beyond just trading strategies. Increasingly, investors need to take an active role in managing an investment in order to...

AMG Data Services.
May 22, 2006... High yield mutual funds reported $135 million in net outflows for the week ended last Wednesday, according to AMG Data Services. This is the sixth consecutive week of outflows from high yield funds. (c) 2006 High Yield Report and...

Market View: Junk Losses Not So Worrisome.(high yield bonds)
May 29, 2006... Something has applied the brakes to the high yield market's steady momentum. After clocking a 3.84% total return on the Merrill Lynch High Yield Master Index for the year through May 10, some of those gains have been reversed in the last two...

European Company News: Testing The New French Insolvency Laws.
May 29, 2006... French-based Global Automotive Logistics (GAL) is not just another auto industry-related casualty. As the first test case under the new US Chapter 11-inspired insolvency laws in France, GAL represents a restructuring that investors across...

Distressed Debt: Delta Toils Despite Tail Wind.
May 29, 2006... The airline industry appears on track to have its best year in ages, but analysts and investors are wondering whether the improved climate will be enough to buoy one of the sector's biggest wrecks, Delta Air Lines. Delta, which filed for...

Research: Players Get HY Research On Demand From India.
May 29, 2006... It's a Wednesday afternoon at 5 p.m. and a portfolio manager has just bought a piece of a new bond issue about which he knows less than he probably should. It's nearly time to go home and he needs to make a decision by 9 a.m.: Should he flip it...

Derivatives: More Investors Take Advantage Of CDS.(credit default swaps)
May 29, 2006... As the $17 trillion market for credit derivatives continues to expand, its credibility is expanding along with it. Last year's round of corporate bond defaults certainly helped to solidify the position of credit derivatives, and specifically...

Profile: Babson Strengthens Position In CDO Of CDOs Market.(collateralized debt obligation)(Company overview)
May 29, 2006... With the launch of its third collateralized debt obligation (CDO) of CDOs, the $400 million Connecticut Value Structured Credit CDO III, Babson Capital Management has made yet another mark in what remains a niche market of the structured...

AMG Data Services.(report of high yield mutual funds)(Brief article)
May 29, 2006... High yield retail mutual funds collectively reported outflows totaling $345.6 million for the week ended last Wednesday, according to AMG Data Services. In the asset class' seventh straight week of outflows, 229 funds reported outflows, while...

Gainers & Losers: HCA/Owens Corning.(Northwest Airlines Corp. contracts with labor unions)(Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. earnings)(Cooper Tire and Rubber Co.'s bonds)(Brief article)
May 29, 2006... Textile manufacturer Avondale Mills' bonds posted gains last week, after it settled with its insurance company for $215 million in damages stemming from a January 2005 train accident. The company also announced it would sell off or close all of...

Market Buzz: Peetz At Helm Of BNY's Combined Trust Biz.(Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. appointed George H. Walker)(Wachovia Securities Inc. appointed Mike Alexander)(The Bank of New York promoted Karen B. Peetz)
May 29, 2006... The Bank of New York (BNY) announced on May 22 that Karen B. Peetz, head of the global corporate trust business, has been promoted to senior executive vice president. Peetz will now lead BNY's combined businesses - the bank announced last month...