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Private Debt Intelligence - 5/25/2020

Has Asia-Focused Private Debt Been Impacted by COVID-19? The Asian private debt market is still relatively small, and expansion has been slower than in the more developed regions of Europe and North America. The region has yet to reach a ‘critical mass’, so activity remains cyclical. Has there been a significant change amid the pandemic…

PDI Picks – 5/25/2020

Strategic pioneers give fundraising a helping hand Outside of the mainstream, fund managers are seeking to take advantage of the dislocations produced by the global pandemic. In a way, all seems normal. Our latest data on private debt fundraising by strategy (see charts above) are not especially out of kilter with the norm. A slight…

The Pulse of Private Equity – 5/18/2020

April was down, as expected Download PitchBook’s Report here. An early look at April 2020 deal volume shows the significant decline we’ve all been anticipating. Only 158 transactions were completed last month, less than half of the typical monthly volume we were seeing pre-pandemic. As we’ve noted in the past, some of these deals were announced…

Leveraged Loan Insight & Analysis - 5/18/2020

MM Sponsored dealflow pipeline expected to remain anemic through summer Middle market syndicated loan issuance remains extremely thin for sponsor-backed deals so far in 2Q20. Volume has only reached about US$1.6bn so far in 2Q20 with zero opportunistic flow such as refinancings or dividend recaps. Anecdotally, lenders indicate that the M&A pipeline is extremely thin…

DL Deals: News & Analysis  - 5/18/2020

Non-Accruals across lower middle market portfolios rise to 7.5% Effects of the coronavirus lifted the average non-accrual rate across lower middle market BDC portfolios by 1.7%, to 7.5% in the first quarter. Out of $5.8 billion of outstanding first- and second-lien term loans, $436 million was on non-accrual across 42 borrowers, up from $331 million…

High Times (First of a Series)

One of our faithful readers emailed the other day: “Hey, I noticed it’s been a while since you wrote about the high-yield market. Would love to get your insights on what’s going on there. Seems like a lot of activity recently. Trying to figure it out. Thanks.” Help is on the way. For assistance, we…

Covid-19 and the Labor Market

The Bank of England has projected the COVID-19 pandemic will cause GDP for the UK to decline 14% this year. That’s the worst economic performance in three centuries. In 1706 (when the Bank of England was twelve years old) Great Britain was a very different place: devastated by wars and weather, the union with Scotland […]