Survey: Where are we in the credit cycle? Thirty-nine percent of buyside and sellside institutions in the room at Fitch Ratings and Thomson Reuters LPC’s Loan & CLO Conference last Thursday felt that we are already headed into a correction and in the late stages of the credit cycle, up from just 4% in both…
Closing times indicate divergence in company quality In the first quarter of 2016, most private equity transactions still took between 10 and 14 weeks to close, accounting for 31% of deals completed during that timeframe. However, as illustrated above, the portion of deals that closed in 15 to 20 weeks shot up to near 25%…
Private Debt Dry Powder: Regional Contrasts The amount of capital available to private debt fund managers varies hugely in different parts of the world. In H1 2016, managers focusing on North America and Asia have both seen dry powder reach record levels, while Europe-focused… Login to Read More...
Falling government bond yields across Europe have meant investors have been rewarded with impressive returns so far this year. One country however, continues to lag. Portugal has seen its credit risk hover at elevated levels and its government bonds have produced negative returns this year. Credit investors have been treating Portugal with increasing scepticism since…
Secondary market oil and gas loan prices have continued to climb recently in tandem with higher oil prices. Oil and gas loans are now up over 16 points from their February low, though their average bid is still a relatively low 70 cents on the dollar. There is also a wide variation in prices across…
Core-middle-market buyout multiples slide in Q1 2016 Between the end of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, median buyout multiples for the central middle market slid considerably. Calculating multiples by enterprise value over EBITDA, and then breaking them down by enterprise values from $25 million to $250 million, reveals a decline from 8.6x in…
Investors Planning Larger Allocations to Private Debt Across all Regions Preqin research into the private debt industry finds that while investors in all regions are currently below their target allocation to the asset class, there is significant fluctuation between regions. Despite private debt in North America and Europe playing a crucial role in fundraising… Login
Tumbling volatility over the past months has seen US and European corporate credit risk converge, despite credit investors bracing themselves for diverging monetary policies. In a speech yesterday, Fed chair Janet Yellen remained positive about an interest rate hike in the coming months, while tomorrow marks the start of the ECB’s corporate bond buying programme….
Large arrangers have gained enough confidence to arrange and syndicate second lien facilities this quarter in the leveraged loan market. So far in 2Q16, US$2.4bn in second lien tranches have closed, a 60% improvement from the US$1.52bn last quarter. And several second liens have even been used to finance dividend recaps – a testament to…
Median healthcare buyout size surges in 1Q In the first quarter of 2016, the median private equity buyout in the U.S. healthcare sector hit $139.3 million in size, topping the previous high of $123 million in 2012. Even if 2016’s numbers slide as the year goes on, transaction sizes shouldn’t decline by much, owing to…