Lending flat in 2016 after late-year spurt

摘要

A fourth-quarter rush of corporate buyouts and refinancing, as markets rallied on prospects of looser financial regulations under a Trump administration, pulled 2016 US syndicated lending volume up to match the prior year's pace. Expectations of friendlier business policies stoked leveraged buyout and mergers and acquisition transactions in the year's final weeks, a shift bankers think will carry into 2017. In the uncertain and volatile three quarters prior to the US election, total lending volume was running at a four-year low. By year-end, syndicated lending had recovered, reaching US$1.99tm and equalling 2015 volume.