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Markets at the Midpoint (Second of a Series)

Luis Polonia, the former outfielder for nine major league baseball teams in the 1990’s, once observed of the late Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner: “He’s only interested in one thing. And I don’t know what that one thing is.” We recalled Mr. Polonia’s pronouncement last week as we surveyed lenders on the state of the middle…

Chart of the Week: Recap Evap

Thanks to continued concern about market volatility, dividend recap activity in the middle market has slowed to a crawl in the second quarter. Source: Thomson Reuters LPC

The Pulse of Private Equity - 7/18/2016

US PE sellers slowly reducing inventory of aging portfolio companies After climbing steadily for several years, the median hold period in the US by private equity firms roughly leveled off between 2013 and 2014. From there, the hold period for companies exited via IPO briefly leapt upward in 2015, only to plunge once more in…

Preqin Private Debt Intelligence - 7/18/2016

Private Debt sees Imbalanced Fundraising Landscape As of the start of Q3 2016, there were 247 private debt funds in market, targeting an aggregate $141bn in capital commitments. However, the landscape currently shows an imbalanced ratio in terms of the debt types which have the most funds on the road, compared to the corresponding proportion…

Markit Recap – 7/11/2016

In the heady days of  2004-2007, before  the Great Moderation came to a shuddering halt, it seemed  set in stone that European investment grade CDS traded tighter than their North American counterparts. In May 2007, the Markit iTraxx Europe was trading at 20bps and the Markit CDX.NA.IG was quoted 15bps wider at 35bps. This 15bps…

Leveraged Loan Insight & Analysis - 7/11/2016

U.S. CLO assets under management (AUM) climbed to $434 billion in June on the back of further new deal flow. Issuance increased to $6.6 billion (15 deals) in June from $5.4 billion (13 deals) in May. This brought first half 2016 issuance to $26.2 billion (62 deals), which is down sharply from $60.4 billion (115…

Markets at the Midpoint (First of a Series)

“What’s the most depressing holiday?” Suspecting a joke, we hesitated before answering our friend’s query at a backyard barbecue last Saturday. “July 4th,” he said without waiting. Really? “It means the summer is almost over,” he finished glumly. For credit market participants, the year’s too-swift passage also signals 2016’s halfway point – time to reflect…