Winter Games (Part One)

We knew Disney World would involve some long lines. Even with Fast Passes, it’s tough to zip through everything. And with three young girls in tow (two daughters and a friend), flexibility is key. The surprise was the four-hour wait at one Disney destination that’s not on the usual tour: the Buena Vista Urgent Care clinic.

Turns out that’s the place to go when your daughter’s friend gets influenza B on the second day of your trip. Seemed like half of Orlando was there as well. So now, besides Elsa, Gaston, and Rapunzel, our new favorite Disney character is Tamiflu.

Preventative medicine was thus much on our mind this week. Specifically how lenders try to inoculate themselves against bad structures in the leveraged loan market.

One helpful resource was the recent Private Credit Insights conference hosted by Proskauer. This annual event, led by our friend, Stephen Boyko, reviewed the changes his practice witnessed in covenants, pricing, leverage and other credit documentation.

Proskauer’s data base consists of more than 200 deals closed with 84 private equity sponsors during 2017. For reasons we’ll discuss, these are more appropriately categorized as “club” rather than “syndicated” transactions.