Credit concerns have increased this year as defaults, while still low by historical standards, continue to move higher. The U.S. leveraged loan default rate ended the first quarter at 2.8%, up from 2% in the previous quarter, and up from 1% a year ago, according to Moody’s. In the first quarter, $7.3 billion of leveraged…
PE Firms Looking Lower for Value As prices remain stubbornly high in many cases, a surge in overall private equity deal value in the reaches of the U.S. lower middle market is not wholly unexpected – on a quarterly basis, deal value was up by over 80% from 4Q while transactions jumped 14% in number….
Brazil leads as credit risk in Latam region recedes Brazil’s 5-yr sovereign CDS spread has tightened to its lowest level since last August Peru, Chile and Colombia have all seen a 35% tightening in sovereign credit spreads Markit iBoxx USD Emerging Markets Corporates LatAm Index has returned 7.7% this year Credit markets reacted positively after…
Exploration and production companies continue to feel the crunch from low oil prices, which began their slide in mid-2014. While oil prices have rebounded from this year’s February lows, the uplift is facing major headwinds as OPEC members and Russia recently announced they wouldn’t freeze production. Many companies have filed for bankruptcy and more are expected…
Will 2016 Record More Add-ons Than Last Year? As a proportion of overall U.S. buyout activity, add-ons have gone from strength to strength. But the latest quarterly numbers have topped them all. In the first quarter of 2016, add-ons comprised 68% of all private equity buyout activity. While this percentage will likely decline as the…
When it comes to the Italian banks, pessimists are not in short supply. Indeed, to be bullish on this sector could be considered contrarian, or even foolhardy, given its parlous state. Asset quality is the overriding problem – Italy’s banks have €360bn of non-performing loans on their balance sheet, about a third of the eurozone’s…
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…
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…
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%…
The Bigger, the Better: Private Equity Funds Still Trending Upward in Size Although there is a fair amount of quarterly variance in median private equity fund sizes, there has been a distinct trend upward since the end of 2013, with the closing quarter of 2015 cresting at just over $300 million across all PE fund…