TheLeadLeft

The Pulse of Private Equity - 2/22/2016

How much longer will the M&A boom sustain PE exits? The M&A boom has been very kind to private equity sellers. Last year saw PE sellers close over 1,200 sales to strategic buyers, with total value just eclipsing $360 billion. That leaves the past three years at a total of $963 billion in total value…

Leveraged Loan Insight & Analysis - 2/22/2016

Despite significant market volatility, PE shops are moving full speed ahead on select mega deals in 2016. While the dataset is still limited, the average purchase price for large corporate buyout deals so far in 2016 has skyrocketed to US$5.8bn, up from just US$1.8bn in 2015 and surpassing the US$5.1bn record set in 2007…. Login

Markit Recap – 2/15/2016

The shrinking of balance sheets has become a common theme in recent years, particularly in the financial sector. Investors are punishing banks that either unwilling or unable to implement a more conservative financial strategy. It is increasingly clear that the same phenomenon is now observed in the commodities sector. Mining firms need to scale back their…

Leveraged Loan Insight & Analysis - 2/15/2016

Discounts on first-lien institutional term loans haven’t been this wide since 2011. The average original issue discount (OID) is 98.02 so far this quarter, almost on par with 4Q15’s 97.98 average. Only 13% of first-lien institutional term loans have been done at an OID of 99.5 or narrower this quarter, slightly down from 16% last…

A Review of European Direct Lending (First of a Series)

Over the years the US has been by far the dominant supplier of leveraged loans globally. (See our Chart of the Week) But given similar regulatory pressure being exerted on overseas banks as here, Europe is gaining media attention as a source of debt opportunities for both managers and investors. How should these opportunities be…

Chart of the Week - Tale of Two Markets

The volume of institutional leveraged loans in the US is over six times as large as that of Europe on average over the past fifteen years. Source: S&P Capital IQ; Annual institutional loan volume in US dollars

Lead Left Interview - Kathryn Dick (Part 2)

This week we continue our conversation with Kathryn Dick, Managing Director, Promontory Financial Group. Kathy advises clients on regulatory issues, risk management, and capital market activities. Prior to Promontory, Kathy had a 26-year tenure at the Office of the Controller of the Currency.  Second of two parts – View part one The Lead Left: There’s concern among…