High Yield Report articles from November 2005

High Yield Report archives from November 2005

Private Equity: Asian LBO Market Gains Momentum.(leveraged buyouts)
November 7, 2005... Sources are expecting to see more leveraged buyout (LBO) syndicated financing deals begin to take root in Asia. These deals have been few and far between thus far in the region, given that the Asian market has been dominated by straight...

US Company News: Odds Improve For Native American Gaming Deals.
November 7, 2005... In recent months, the high yield market has loosened its purse strings for issuers in the Native American gaming sector. In a month of notoriously low high yield issuance, both Seminole Tribe of Florida and Chukchansi Economic Development...

Regulation: Audits Cast Scarlet Letters On Issuers.(Letter to the Editor)
November 7, 2005... Yield may be the coveted prize for the speculative grade investor, but under certain circumstances, some investors say they'd pass - especially when receiving such yield means they must invest in a company that has reported incorrect...

Market View: To Stay Or Go? Auto Investors Face Dilemma.
November 7, 2005... Every bondholder has a breaking point. For Baltimore-based MTB Investment Advisors, that moment came late in the first quarter, when the investor decided life was not going to get any better for General Motors Corp. (GM) and opted to sell off...

CDOs: Delphi Debt Helps Boost WAS Tests.(Brief Article)
November 7, 2005... While the recovery prospects of bankrupt Delphi Corp.'s bonds don't look as good as the recovery prospects for the auto supplier's loans, it looks like there are only a few cash flow collateralized debt obligations and only two collateralized...

Profile: AlixPartners Targets Japan As Demand Increases For Turnarounds.(Company Profile)
November 7, 2005... Although corporate turnarounds have taken place in the US and in Europe for quite some time, the notion of fixing the fundamental business model of a struggling company is a fairly new concept in Japan. Historically, the practice for Japanese...

Distressed Debt Spotlight.(bankruptcy law)
November 7, 2005... by Kevin Prokop, director, Questor Management Company With a well established Bankruptcy Code and a sophisticated market of bankruptcy advisors, navigating through Chapter 11 as a secured or unsecured creditor is supposed to be a reasonably...

Gainers & Losers: Delta/GMAC.(bonds)(Brief Article)
November 7, 2005... Last week's gainers list was dominated by companies currently under bankruptcy protection. Delta Air Lines' bonds rose in response to an aggressive series of cost cutting measures, including $325 million in concessions that the company is...

AMG Data Services.
November 7, 2005... High Yield mutual funds reported $132 million of outflows last week, according to AMG Data Services, marking the eighth consecutive week of net outflows. (c) 2005 High Yield Report and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ...

Market Buzz/data.
November 7, 2005... The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) has fined three firms and expelled another, all for trading violations involving high yield bonds. All four firms face disciplinary action for charging excessive markups or markdowns in bond...

European Company News: Euro Investors Eye Wind Mega Bond.
November 14, 2005... High yield investors in Europe were busy last week attending the road shows for the long-awaited 1.25 billion, 10-year bond issue for Italian telecom operator Wind Telecomunicazioni. And despite some fears about the large size of the issue,...

Sector Analysis: Price Competition May Hurt Retailer Holiday Profits.
November 14, 2005... For this coming holiday season, promotional pricing - and not penny-pinching consumers - might deal the harshest blow to retailer profits. Indeed, a primary question on the minds of retail analysts is: "How promotional will the upcoming...

Market View: Investors Predict Treacherous HY Terrain In '06.(high yield)
November 14, 2005... Investors sizing up risks for the remainder of the current credit cycle have numerous reasons for their bearish stance, according to a recent Merrill Lynch investor survey conducted across fixed income asset classes. According to the survey,...

Q&A: HY Sage Resurfaces At Mutual Fund Quixote Capital.(Interview)
November 14, 2005... Jerry Paul is not a man inclined to sit still. Best known for his seven-year stint as a high yield bond fund manager at Denver-based Invesco, where in 1999 he was named Morningstar fixed income manager of the year, Paul was a big telecom...

Rating Agencies: Moody's Beefs Up Ratings Tool.(Brief Article)
November 14, 2005... The collateralized debt obligation community is the fastest growing customer base in line for a relatively new system of analytics offered by Moody's Investors Service - so-called market implied ratings. The system tracks the gap between what...

AMG Data Services.
November 14, 2005... The steady outflow from high yield mutual funds continued, as AMG Data Services reported $138 million in outflows for the week ended last Wednesday. This marks the ninth consecutive week of outflows. (c) 2005 High Yield Report and...

Gainers & Losers: Northwest/Delphi.
November 14, 2005... Northwest Airlines was a gainer last week, having pushed through $332 million in annual cost cutting measures with its pilots and flight attendants. Market sentiment is that a stripped down Northwest may soon become an attractive investment for...

Market Buzz.
November 14, 2005... Standard & Poor's' global speculative grade bond default rate fell ever-so-slightly to 1.6% at the end of October from 1.61% at the end of September. This is higher than the eight-year low of 1.58% recorded in March 2005. The default rate stood...

Secondary Trading: Investors Shun Primary, Look To Secondary.
November 21, 2005... Even though market players are forecasting a busy early December for US primary high yield issuance, investors might not be interested. That's because in recent weeks, many high yield investors have been looking straight past the primary market...

Market View: This Year's Turkey Award Goes To...
November 21, 2005... One of the most well known aspects of the Thanksgiving holiday is the coveted turkey dinner. But for the high yield market, Thanksgiving also brings with it HYR's annual turkey award. Indeed, determining which of the many contenders will become...

Europe: EHYA, BMA Unite To Improve Euro HY Cause.(Bond Market Association)(European High Yield Association)
November 21, 2005... In a move that aims to better serve the interests of European high yield market constituents, The Bond Market Association (the BMA) in London announced last week that the European High Yield Association (EHYA) will fully integrate with the BMA...

US Company News: Issuers Continue To Increase Bank Debt, Decrease HY.(high yield)
November 21, 2005... Last week, Targus Group International, Team Health and Accellent became the latest companies to jump on the bandwagon of issuers increasing their bank debt and decreasing their bond debt. This is as conditions remain soft in the high yield...

US Company News: No Panacea In Sight For Blockbuster.(Brief Article)
November 21, 2005... Blockbuster completed a third amendment to its bank credit agreement last week. But while the company's amendment might give it some breathing room in the short term, analysts and rating agencies are not confident of the company's long-term...

Profile: Merrill Zeros In On Most Profitable Businesses.(Merrill Lynch and Company Inc)
November 21, 2005... In August 2003, when Greg Fleming became co-head of investment banking at Merrill Lynch along with Dow Kim, Merrill's investment banking operation and the firm in general were in some disarray. New CEO Stan O'Neal had just finished slashing...

Gainers & Losers: Coinmach/GMAC.
November 21, 2005... The bonds of Northwest Airlines Corp. and AMR Corp., parent company of American Airlines, both rose in trading last week after oil fell below $58 per barrel. Further boosting the airline companies' bonds was Senate approval of a bill to...

Market Buzz.
November 21, 2005... Piper Jaffray announced last Wednesday that it has hired Ben May as head of high yield and structured products within the firm's corporate and institutional services business (CIS). May, who will report to head of CIS Tom Schnettler, will...

AMG Data Services.
November 21, 2005... In the 10th consecutive week of outflows from high yield mutual funds, $162 million departed the asset class in the week ended last Wednesday, according to AMG Data Services. (c) 2005 High Yield Report and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights...

Europe: Euro Retail Could See Trouble In '06.
November 28, 2005... After a euphoric year for the leveraged finance business in Europe, analysts and investors there have begun to pay closer attention to the strengths and weaknesses of individual industries, and many have pointed to the retail sector as a...

Strategy: Taking A Chance On The HY Off-Season.(high yield bonds)
November 28, 2005... The winter may be a time of hibernation, but high yield bond market analysts and investors have noted that, if history is any judge, it is a prime time to buy junk. Analysts surveying high yield bond performance from December 1986 to...

Restructuring: Concerns Exist Over New Ch. 11 KERP Rules.(Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2003)(key employee retention plan)
November 28, 2005... The key employee retention plan (KERP) is an animal with which many debt investors are quite familiar. For better or worse, KERPs have long been fixtures in top management pay packages during buyouts, bankruptcies, and even during business as...

US Company News: Autocam To Enter Into Alternative Financing.
November 28, 2005... The lower production volumes of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) appear to be taking their toll on Autocam Corp. In a November 10 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company said that as of September 30, it was in...

Research: Merrill Implements New Rating Scale.
November 28, 2005... Following its earlier implementation in Asia and in Europe earlier this year, Merrill Lynch announced last week that it has implemented a new action-oriented rating scale for US credit research. In response to client feedback, Merrill said it...

Profile: RBC Rebrands In Pursuit Of Larger Fixed Income Market Share.
November 28, 2005... Although RBC Financial Group - the master brand name for subsidiaries under the Royal Bank of Canada - didn't officially rebrand its US fixed income business until earlier this month, clients of its investment banking arm, RBC Capital Markets,...

Gainers & Losers: AMR/Delphi.
November 28, 2005... AMR Corp., parent company of American Airlines, maintained a strong presence on the gainers list last week after AMR received a cash infusion from its stock offering. AMR priced 13 million shares at $17.25, for a total of $224.25 million. AMR's...

Market Buzz.(Merrill Lynch report on distress ratios)(Willkie Farr and Gallagher appointed Bernard A. Nigro)(Pequot Capital Management Inc. appointed Peter Labon, Carson Levit and Steve Pigott)
November 28, 2005... Merrill Lynch reported that as of November 15, the US and European distress ratios remained unchanged compared with the prior month. The proportion of credits trading at or over 1,000 basis points stood at 5.8% in the US and at 1.9% in Europe....

Strategy: Figuring Out How To Structure Foolproof Prepayment Premiums.(Column)
November 28, 2005... by Steven Ellis and Stephen Boyko, partners at Proskauer Rose Lenders often negotiate to receive a premium if their loans are paid off prior to their stated maturity. These prepayment premiums are designed to protect against a loss of...