Banks are finally starting to market the high-yield bonds backing the leveraged buyouts of Nielsen and Tenneco via investor calls on Thursday.
The dealmakers are taking advantage of a rare moment of liquidity in the leveraged finance markets ahead of the usual market lulls around fourth-quarter holidays.
"Market liquidity will really begin to evaporate after the Thanksgiving break, heading into year end," said Adam Coons, high-yield portfolio manager at Winthrop Capital Management. "Therefore, there is a small window right now where volume has calmed down a bit and there is some liquidity still left."
Lead left Bank of America is holding a call with money managers at 10:00 am for a US$1.96bn offering of 6.5-year bonds for TV ratings provider Nielsen. Proceeds will refinance the bridge loan the banks funded on October 11 to pay for the US$16bn buyout of Nielsen by Elliott Management and Brookfield Asset Management.
Nielsen's bond is part of a more than US$10bn debt financing package that includes first and second-lien term loans and a revolver, in addition to the bridge loan that the bond will take out. The bond is expected to price next week.
Meanwhile, bookrunners including BofA, Citigroup, Barclays and BNP Paribas scheduled an investor call for 11am today on a US$1bn six-year senior secured note backing Apollo Global’s agreed US$7.1bn buyout of Tenneco. The purchase of the auto-parts maker, which announced third-quarter results on Monday, is expected to close mid-November. A US$1.4bn senior secured term loan B is also being syndicated as part of the buyout financing.
One high-yield investor believes Tenneco's deal was pushed out this week due to Apollo needing to close the deal before the end of the year and not seeing conditions get any better.
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