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…
With the first quarter of 2016 in the books, we kick off the second with a look at our Chart of the Week. Our content partners at Thomson Reuters LPC report middle market activity with sponsors slumped to $7.3 billion – the lowest level since 2010. Anecdotally mid cap lenders confirm this trend. “We’re pretty…
Last Saturday a friend of ours took advantage of the spring-like weather, wading upstream from his house. Armed with his son’s $14.99 Shakespeare® Salamander rod, a can of worms, a six pack, and a cigar, he sat on a log, waiting for a nibble. Three hours – and zero nibbles – later, a man in…
As we wrap up our series on direct lending in Europe, let’s examine the supply/demand dynamic we expect to drive deal activity for providers and users of private debt. As our Chart of the Week shows, European funds have almost $30 billion in dry powder available to support loans. On the supply side, private equity…
How much has been raised to support non-bank direct lending in Europe? Figures are often cited in the media without asking related questions such as “What are they raising?” or “What’s their strategy?” Preqin recently reported about €31 billion was raised last year for “private debt.” Of that roughly 60% was for direct lending, with…
So far in this series we’ve covered the unique lending characteristics of European jurisdictions as well as the inherent advantages held by European banks. This week we look closer at the opportunities presented to non-bank direct lenders. Selling high-yield bonds in Europe has generally been unchanged over the past five years. It’s still a public…
“Europe is not a market,” a keen observer of Europe’s debt market informed us. “First of all,” he said, “there’s the difference in legal jurisdictions. These are real hurdles and won’t change anytime soon. If anything, the EU is becoming less unified.” “Here local teams matter. Even London-based teams have trouble managing deals on the…
Burger King isn’t just selling Whoppers any more. Last week the second largest burger giant began serving hot dogs at all its locations year-round. “We’re applying sixty years of flame-grilling expertise,” said Alex Macedo, President of North America. “We also have to chop the onions a little differently,” he added. The thesis regarding opportunities today…
Over the years the US has been by far the dominant supplier of leveraged loans globally. (See our Chart of the Week) But given similar regulatory pressure being exerted on overseas banks as here, Europe is gaining media attention as a source of debt opportunities for both managers and investors. How should these opportunities be…
If you want to know what middle debt investors are thinking, why not ask them? This novel concept was rolled out simultaneously last week by two experienced middle market practitioners in the form of questionnaires. We thought it would be instructive to give you a sense of what the respondents had to say. The first…