TheLeadLeft

Chart of the Week: Great Expectations

The vast majority of respondents to William Blair’s survey on leverage lending conditions believe leverage and terms will either loosen or remain unchanged.

Lead Left Interview - Eric Green and Mark O’Keeffe (Part 2)

This week we continue our conversation with Eric Green and Mark O’Keeffe of Muzinich and Co. Muzinich is a global institutional asset manager specializing in corporate credit; headquartered in New York, the firm has offices in London, Manchester, Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich, Milan and Madrid. Second of two parts – View part one  The Lead Left: Tell us…

Private Debt Intelligence - 2/13/2017

Private Debt Investors Delighted with Fund Performance

At the end of 2016, Preqin conducted surveys with over 90 private debt investors in order to gauge their satisfaction with the performance of the private debt asset class and to ascertain their investment plans for both 2017 and long-term future.

More than a quarter (27%) of private debt investors surveyed stated that the performance had exceeded their expectations, an increase of nine percentage points compared to the end of 2015...

Leveraged Loan Insight & Analysis - 2/6/2017

Overall LBO leverage on the rise in 1Q17

Average leverage levels on both large corporate and institutional middle market LBO deals have shown a meaningful jump in 1Q17. With refinancings and repricings dominating the leveraged loan market, investors seem more willing to stretch on new money LBO deals. The average leverage level so far in 1Q17 is at 5.0 times first lien and 6.50 times total debt to EBITDA, up from 4.6 times senior by 6.1 times total last quarter...

Debtwire Middle-Market – 2/6/2017

The red line in the chart is the *Cliffwater Direct Lending Index (CDLI) current yield, which is based on the investment income of the underlying assets held by public and private BDCs. BDCs invest in middle market companies, and the Index comprises of more than 6000 middle market loans - with 56% senior debt, 31% subordinate debt and 9% equity. The blue line displays the BofA Merrill Lynch US High Yield, which tracks the performance of USD denominated below investment grade corporate debt publically issued in the US...

2017 - A Look Ahead (Second of a Series)

Last week we ventured some thoughts on where this year would take us on middle market deal terms – pricing, leverage, structures, and covenants [link]. This week we examine the supply and demand technicals we expect will drive those terms. First, let’s dispel the persistent myth of too much cash chasing too few deals. Last…