3Q20 MM sponsored loan issuance picks up from 2Q20’s low, but still quite anemic Sponsor-backed middle market volume showed a pick up in 3Q20 to US$5.6bn, up 120% from 2Q20’s post credit crisis low. But volume was still quite dire and over 62% behind 3Q19’s level. While pricing has been tightening dramatically month after month,…

1-3Q20 Leveraged volume up 6% y-o-y; Asset mix skews toward HY bond issuance US Leveraged borrowers pushed nearly US$839bn of issuance through the market during the first nine months of 2020, a 6% increase over the same time last year. Although the totals did not shift dramatically year over, the mix of loans and bonds…

3Q20 US loan volume lowest since 1Q10; 1-3Q20 down 29% y-o-y Against the backdrop of a second quarter that saw GDP down 30% and a relatively orderly calendar of refinancings and repayment of loan drawdowns, 3Q20 marked a surprising bounce in in the market with GDP up an expected 20-25%, a surge in the equity…

Libor floors remain in institutional market, but are shifting lower One of the many effects brought by the pandemic was the precipitous drop in Libor rates, which had already been in a steady decline for a while. The average 3-month Libor rate dropped almost 100bp to an average of 0.58% in 2Q20 and is at…

Middle market non-sponsored sydicated loan volume drops dramatically Middle market completed non-sponsored syndicated loan volume of US$7bn so far in 3Q20 is far behind the US$22bn logged in 3Q19 and is down from an already slow 2Q20. As the economy shut down due to the pandemic, activity in the non-sponsored market was very limited in…

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…