Covenant and pricing changes were two most amended provision in 2Q20 US middle market Refinitiv LPC tracked 50 US middle market publicly filed 8K summaries that involved a loan amendment in 2Q20. The most changed provision according to those summaries was to financial covenants, where 48% of the amendments involved a change. Borrowers either received…

Combined AUM for US CLOs and retail loan funds inched up to US$784bn in July US CLO assets under management along with loan mutual fund assets under management, inched up in July for a combined total of US$784.4bn, which remains down 1.5% from January’s US$796bn peak. Loan market outstandings ticked lower to end July at…

BDC portfolio non-accrual rates hit 5.53% so far in 2Q20 Digging into portfolio performance remains the top priority for BDC research analysts on BDC earnings calls this week. Even though most BDCs are showing a rebound in asset values, its mostly being driven by a spread tightening envionment with credit performance still an issue. After…

Refinitiv LPC’s Lender Survey: Do you have better control of your downtime? When asked if they have better control of their downtime, 44% of large corporate buyside and sellside lenders surveyed by Refinitiv LPC said they take only one or two breaks per day. However, responses were widely dispersed with 33% reporting that they take…

US debtor-in-possession loan volume surpasses US$10bn so far this year Completed US debtor-in-possession (DIP) loan volume is on track to reaching the highest annual level since the Great Financial Crisis, as many companies have struggled during the Covid-19 pandemic. Already this year there has been over US$10bn in completed DIP volume across 23 deals, with…

U.S. Primary yields widen slightly to 7% so far in July After declining in May and June, primary US institutional yields have inched up in July. The average yield, assuming a three-year term to repayment on first-lien institutional term loans is 7.01% so far in July; up from 6.68% in June, but a lot lower…

Weighted average bids of US CLO portfolios continue to edge higher The value of loan assets in U.S. CLO portfolios has continued to trend higher over the last three months, clawing back some of the losses that battered markets at the end of March, according to analysis from LPC Collateral. Looking at the distribution of…

2Q20 US syndicated down 46% y-o-y; 1H20 off 33% Following the shock, fear and aggressive spread of the Covid-19 virus which brought the world to a standstill in 1Q20, the pandemic and its impact on the global psyche became a mainstay in 2Q20. Across the capital markets, virtual office environments were up and running far…

Refinitiv LPC’s Quarterly Lender Survey: One fifth of lenders have not heard any plans to return to the office When asked if plans are being announced for segmented re-opening of your office, 16% of lenders said no while 36% reported that plans had been announced to start after Labor Day. “We were given a questionnaire…

Bid/Ask spread finally narrows to 2 points but still historically high The average bid/ask spread in the overall US secondary market finally narrowed to 2.01 points yesterday after peaking at 3.52 points on March 27 and hovering above 2 points for 3 months. Previously, the bid/ask spread fell below 3-point mark on April 27 after hovering above 3 for a month and it’s been on a slow…