Making hay while the sun shines

摘要

The US leveraged loan market is showing no signs of a seasonal slowdown. A flurry of opportunistic leveraged loans from issuers backed by strong demand from institutional investors suggests that the market may have recovered from a bout of weakness earlier this year just as geopolitical risk is increasing. Borrowers are lining up to refinance or reprice existing debt at lower spreads and private equity sponsors are raising loans to fund dividend payouts to shareholders, supported by demand from CLO fund buyers. Formula One is in the market with a US$3.8bn refinancing that will finance a US$1bn dividend to owner CVC Capital Partners, while Springer Science + Business Media is also raising a multi-billion cross-border loan that reprices a US dollar Term Loan B2 and replaces a euro Term Loan B1. Elsewhere, education technology company Blackboard has also surfaced with an US$868m repricing loan.