Treasury Wine bidders eye volatile US market

摘要

A bidding war for Australia's treasury wine estates is set to test the US leveraged loan market, which is in the throes of a market correction sparked by huge high-yield bond outflows that have caused several Asian borrowers to postpone US financings or sweeten terms in recent weeks. A US$3bn-plus valuation makes the US market the obvious choice to finance the ASX-listed vintner's buyout, which is one of one of the biggest buyout financings to emerge from Australia since 2010. US volatility raises questions about how aggressive Treasury Wine's private equity bidders can be, and could delay the debt deal. Outflows from US high-yield funds reached US$16.9bn after 22 days of consecutive outflows through August 11, according to data from EPFR and Barclays.