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June 26, 2009

 Past Issues

Cover Story

A Major Thaw In PE Lending?

Middle market buyouts are fueling bank debt syndications in the leveraged loan markets; could large-scale financings be next?

M&A

Eyes On The Prize

To many, the deal market may seem a modern take on Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot.' Buyers and sellers continually wait for a sign that business has stabilized. For the deal community, the identity of Godot may as well be 'visibility,' and in its absence, few have any solutions other than to merely wait.

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Eighteen months ago, few sellers in the midst of a sales process would put much thought into a possible 'Plan B.' If a deal fell through, advisers could merely go to the next bidder in line and forfeit little in the way of a premium. However, these days if one buyer bails, it's possible, or even likely, that no one else is waiting in line to pick up the pieces.

Lights, Camera ... Inaction!

With estimated attendance off as much as 30%, there was plenty for filmmakers to grouse about at the Cannes Film Festival this spring. Amid the celebrities and paparazzi, entertainment executives decried the lack of funding that will make otherwise viable pictures likely cinematic flops.

Editorial

Where Goes The Neighborhood?

You're forgiven for not knowing that June is National Housing Month. After all, most of us don't want to think about our houses, or at least the price of our houses. But along come some findings this week from a group called the National Foundation for Credit Counseling with numbers that you may find revealing, if not downright scary.

Investment Banking

Want Deposits? It Will Cost You

Credit markets may have thawed but some venues of the financial markets remain clogged, so financial services firms have come to rely more what some may see as a quaint George-Bailey-of-Bedford Falls-era method of luring capital: offering high rates for deposits.

Plenty of Qatalysts For Tech

Qatalyst Group's newest partner, Ian MacLeod, talks to IDD about consolidation in the technology sector.

Quoted

Notable quotes from capital-markets players over the past week.

Looking Ahead

A calendar of events taking place in the capital markets next week.

Fixed Income

'Boutique' John Wayne Airport Selling $236M

Orange County, Calif.'s John Wayne Airport is a bit of an oddball among airports. And it's those differences that have helped it garner a rating upgrade that airport officials hope will portend a successful bond issue next week.

BABs v. Corporates? No Contest

When asked why anybody would buy a corporate bond now that a taxable municipal bond alternative is available, Peter Coffin offered an inspired answer: 'I don't know.' The founder of Breckinridge Capital Advisors in Boston sees Build America Bonds - the taxable munis created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - as clear superiors to their corporate brethren.

Committee Looks To Save Highway Fund

A Senate committee will vote during the week of July 20 on an extension to prevent the dwindling highway trust fund from going broke before Congress can pass a multi-year reauthorization bill, its chairman said yesterday.

Fed To Let MMF Program Expire; Others Cut

The Federal Reserve announced yesterday that it will allow an emergency program for money market fund investors to expire and that it is trimming others that are no longer necessary now that financial market conditions have begun to improve.

Fitch Downgrades California GO Bonds to A-Minus

Fitch Ratings yesterday downgraded California's general obligation bonds to A-minus from A, as the state's budget crisis continued to play out amid legislative negotiations and gubernatorial veto threats.

Hedge Funds

Changing Of The Hedgies Guard

It's no longer just the brand-name hedge funds that win out. Indeed, it's the emerging hedge fund manager talent that shows promise of greater returns, while hedge funds with fewer assets under management offer something else fund of fund managers long for -- the ability to adapt quickly.

Play By The Rules, Whatever They Are

While much of the nation's capital remains fixated on health care, another potentially sweeping change awaits. Hedge fund managers, who shouldered plenty of blame for the destabilization of the financial markets, have largely averted regulation until now, but those days appear to be numbered.

High Yield

A Quality Quarter For Junk

New junk bonds are pricing again, and that alone makes the first half of 2009 a good six months.

Personnel File

Carlyle Adviser Joins Morgan

James Hance Jr., the former chief financial officer at Bank of America and currently a Carlyle Group senior adviser, will join Morgan Stanley's board of directors next month. Hance, whoretired as B of A's financial chief in 2005, will join Morgan Stanley in July, the company said.