The macro-economic landscape of recent years, marked by rising interest rates and inflationary pressures, has significantly escalated borrowing costs in the European mid-market. This has prompted borrowers to explore...more
Liability management transactions which may favour a subset of creditors over another are increasingly common in the US leveraged finance markets. 2024 may be seen as the year in which these US imports began to make a real...more
Borrowers and lenders alike may be forgiven for running out of steam when, having negotiated ever more complex commercial grids, term sheets and loan agreements, one reaches the final line item – the governing law of the loan...more
Side letters document bespoke arrangements between all or certain parties to a financing transaction and supplement the terms of the principal documents thereto. Becoming increasingly popular with stakeholders, and with the...more
In the current market, investors are increasingly considering their options in relation to the stressed and distressed credits in their portfolios. Whilst mindful of stakeholder relationships, secured lenders may, in some...more
Senior secured creditors, being the anchor creditor in the capital stack, will always be focused on ensuring their priority claim is as robust as possible, with clearly delineated capacity for 'super priority' debt. However,...more
European leveraged finance in 2023 was saddled with the negative effects of elevated interest rates. But as the market adjusts to the “new normal”, rate and price stability offer hope for a brighter 2024.
-Rising interest...more
1/30/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Banking Sector ,
Buyouts ,
Debt ,
Debt Market ,
EU ,
Financial Institutions ,
Interest Rates ,
Investment ,
Leveraged Finance ,
Loans ,
Mergers ,
Private Equity ,
Refinancing
European PE dealmaking declined in 2022—down 38 per cent year-on-year, according to Mergermarket—as macro-economic uncertainty intensified, valuations became increasingly volatile, and financing tightened.
Under the...more
2/6/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Borrowers ,
Buyouts ,
Capital Markets ,
Debt ,
EU ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
Mergers ,
Private Equity ,
UK
After a year of red-hot moves in the tech sector, markets have cooled down in 2022, as inflation and rate hikes prompted many investors to prioritize investment in safe haven asset classes....more
Issuers are tapping institutional loan markets for add-on debt at a rapid pace as private equity firms turn to buy-and-build strategies to lower entry multiples and accelerate deployment -
Debt issuance to fund add-on...more
The disruption to capital markets caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has not shifted the overall timeline of regulators and industry bodies for the replacement of US dollar LIBOR with SOFR by the end of 2021.
With the expected...more
8/4/2020
/ Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) ,
Banks ,
Bonds ,
Capital Markets ,
CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Derivatives ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Agencies ,
ISDA Master Agreement ,
Libor ,
Loan Syndication and Trading Association (LSTA) ,
Loans ,
Main Street Lending Programs ,
Popular ,
Secured Overnight Funding Rate (SOFR) ,
Transitional Arrangements ,
UK
For further information, please visit the White & Case Coronavirus Resource Center. On 2 April, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a scheme aimed at providing support to the so-called "squeezed middle", which comprises...more
While the UK Government, for the most part, has been praised for taking quick, decisive action to limit the impact of the COVID 19 economic shock for consumers and some UK companies, the measures announced to date excluded a...more
Faced with a rapidly evolving business landscape, lenders, borrowers, advisors and other stakeholders in the leveraged finance market are working hard to assess and monitor current and anticipated problems in existing loan...more
In our client alert entitled "Government-backed initiatives to support businesses impacted by the Coronavirus" we gave an overview of various measures announced by the UK Government to help UK business through the economic...more
3/27/2020
/ Bank of England ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covid Commercial Financing Facility ( CCFF) ,
Financial Distress ,
HM Treasury ,
Loan Agreements ,
Loans ,
Promissory Notes ,
Relief Measures ,
State of Emergency ,
UK
In our client alert titled "Government-backed initiatives to support businesses impacted by the Coronavirus," we gave an overview of various measures announced by the UK Government to help UK business through the economic...more
The UK Government has been quick to respond to the economic shock and disruption caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 and, over the past week, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, HM Treasury and the Bank of England have announced...more
3/24/2020
/ Bank of England ,
Borrowers ,
Business Interruption ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Issuers ,
EU ,
Financial Crisis ,
Government-Guaranteed Loans ,
HM Treasury ,
Industrial Sector ,
Relief Measures ,
State Aid ,
UK
Much has been written about the influence of US terms on European transactions and particularly the steady migration of US concepts into English law facilities agreements, resulting from the supply-demand imbalance in the...more
5/25/2019
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Borrowers ,
Covenant Lite Deals ,
Creditors ,
EU ,
Global Dealmaking ,
Guarantors ,
High Yield Bonds ,
Intercreditor Agreements ,
International Finance ,
Leveraged Buyout ,
Leveraged Loans ,
Libor ,
Loan Market Association ,
Loan Syndication and Trading Association (LSTA) ,
Secured Debt ,
Supply and Demand ,
UK ,
United States
European Leveraged Finance Alert Series: Issue 2, 2019 -
This year European leveraged loan borrowers will test the terms of the additional debt provisions in their loan agreements and there is expected to be significant...more
The definition of EBITDA has always been a fundamental negotiation point in the leveraged finance market; ultimately, a legal construct as opposed to one derived from any recognised accounting standard. In recent years,...more