A busy period for high-yield debt sales shows no signs of stopping in June, with bank meetings set for two leveraged buyout loans following the U.S. Memorial Day holiday.
Lender calls will be held Tuesday for cybersecurity software provider Proofpoint Inc.’s $2.6 billion term loan to finance its buyout by Thoma Bravo, and Protective Industrial Products Inc.’s $135 million term loan to help finance Odyssey Investment Partners’ buyout of the firm.
Investors continue to pour money into U.S. loan funds, adding $862 million of cash in the week ended May 26, according to Refinitiv Lipper. That’s the 20th consecutive week of gains.
The busiest May on record for junk bond sales wrapped up this week, with supply nearly hitting $47 billion. The junk bond calendar is so far quiet heading into June.
Junk Month
This May has been the busiest one on record for U.S. high-yield bond issuance
Source: Bloomberg
A potential ratings upgrade to investment-grade status may be in the cards for Dell Technologies Inc., which reported strong first quarter results and boosted its debt reduction target this week. Dell credit default swaps tightened 17 basis points on Friday as investors digested the news.
Within distressed debt, forbearance agreements expire for mall owner Washington Prime Group Inc. on June 2 — pending another extension — and for GTT Communications Inc. on Thursday, June 3. Trilogy International Partners also faces an expiration for its exchange of notes due 2022 June 3.
Nine Energy Service Inc. and PBF Energy Inc. are among the energy companies that will present at the Wells Fargo Energy Virtual Conference next week.
High-Grade
Syndicate desks are calling for $110 billion of fresh investment-grade supply in June, a slowdown from the $136.5 billion that priced this month. May was the first month this year where primary market sales didn’t meet expectations, with equity volatility tempering volume, Bloomberg’s Michael Gambale wrote.
Most syndicate desks expect between $20 billion to $25 billion in volume for the upcoming holiday-shortened week.
Analysts are taking note of a “rapid decline” of inflows into high-grade bond funds. The amount added to investment-grade funds this week were the lowest since early November, according to Lipper data.
Slowing inflows to bond mutual funds could “expose” the market to widening spreads if the pace of net supply remains steady or increases, Citigroup Inc. strategist Daniel Sorid wrote Friday. Citigroup expects high-grade bond spreads to be “biased wider” over the next 12 months, seeing “signs that valuations may be reaching slightly excessive levels.”
–With assistance from Gowri Gurumurthy, Katherine Doherty, and Lara Wieczezynski.
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