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…

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…

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…

U.S. leveraged lending, at US$112bn in 1Q16, was down 29% from 4Q15 Instability in oil prices and credit concerns in energy and metals and mining, coupled with worries that slowing global growth could impact the U.S., amplified what was already shaky sentiment heading into this year. Although seeing opportunities, some distressed funds waited to pull…

1Q16 US Syndicated loan volume tumbles 19% y-o-y; Down a more substantial 37% q-o-q US syndicated loan volume took a tumble in 1Q16 to log  just over $310 billion, down 19% compared to year ago levels and a more substantial 37% drop over 4Q15 totals.  Surprisingly, the decline was most notable among investment grade issuers who…

Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the most widely held name in U.S. CLOs, announced last week it was cutting its revenue forecast and that a delay in filing its annual report put the company at risk of defaulting on its debt. In response, Valeant’s shares plunged by more than 50%. The company’s loans ended Tuesday with a weighted…

The equity, bond, and loan markets have all rebounded from their February lows as investor sentiment has improved. Multi-quote institutional loan bids are now at 92.24, up from a low of 90.48.  High yield bond prices have posted a relatively bigger bounce, jumping 6 points from their low in February to an average of 90….

Just shy of three months into 2016, CLO issuance remains stalled, logging less than US$3 billion in new vehicles through the end of February. This represents an 80% drop compared to the same time last year. More notably, only a few days into March, a single CLO has come to market via a US$406.75 million…

Flex activity in the leveraged loan market amped up in February as market volatility continued and lenders tried to push deals through that had been shelved since last year. Thomson Reuters LPC’s Flex Factor, which aggregates price and structural flex activity to gauge investor sentiment, increased to an average score of 3.2… Subscribe to Read

Despite significant market volatility, PE shops are moving full speed ahead on select mega deals in 2016. While the dataset is still limited, the average purchase price for large corporate buyout deals so far in 2016 has skyrocketed to US$5.8bn, up from just US$1.8bn in 2015 and surpassing the US$5.1bn record set in 2007…. Subscribe