TheLeadLeft

Lead Left Interview - Stephen Lewis

This week we chat with Stephen Lewis, Managing Director, Headwaters MB. Headwaters is a middle market focused investment bank. Steve’s focus is cross border debt capital markets. The Lead Left: Steve, it’s been over two years since we last spoke. What’s changed since then? Stephen Lewis: The world is not the same place we knew…

Leveraged Loan Insight & Analysis - 4/11/2016

Debtor-in-possession loan volume reached US$1.6bn in 1Q16 across 5 deals. That number already surpassed 2015’s entire total of US$930m across 4 deals. And there is more to come. Peabody Energy announced it had secured an US$800m DIP financing from creditors as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The deal includes a US$500m term loan and US$100m…

Where’s the Deal Flow? (Second of a Series)

Last week we discussed the views of various private equity sponsors regarding the question of why the pipeline of middle market leveraged loans seems soft. Over the past several weeks, we’ve also had conversations with a number of key middle market debt arrangers and lenders. Their consensus mirrors that of the PE firms – deal…

Chart of the Week - Buyout Blip

Pure middle market LBO activity slumped during the 1Q 2016, while add-ons were a greater share of M&A loan volume. Quarterly Middle Market LBO and Add-on Loan Volume Source: Thomson Reuters LPC 2Q MM Investor Outlook Survey

The Pulse of Private Equity - 4/11/2016

98% of U.S. PE Funds Closed in Q1 Either Hit or Exceeded Target In the first quarter of 2016, 71 U.S. PE funds closed on a total of $51.8 billion in capital commitments. Of those 71 vehicles, no less than 98% either hit or exceeded their target. This proportion is unprecedented, even by the standards…

Markit Recap – 4/4/2016

Investors embrace long dated corporate bonds Investors have been loading up on relatively higher yielding long term corporate bonds, in spite of the asset class seeing its average credit rating decline in recent years. Long dated corporate bond ETFs have seen $90m of inflows ytd, over twice the 2015 total BBB bonds make up 47%…