Category: Corporate debt

  • As I wrote on CFO.com on Tuesday, China’s domestic banks may face problems during the “great moderation” of China’s economic growth.  A recent S&P report said that the majority of China’s top banks, and many regional and national banks, “remain vulnerable to credit shocks stemming from a hard-landing scenario for the Chinese economy.” They are not…

  • Is there any end to banks’ easing of standards on business loans? Loan underwriting is getting pretty loose. The Federal Reserve’s Senior Loan Officer Survey for July shows banks easing standards (yet again) for industrial & commercial loans. The percentage of domestic U.S. banks easing actually was near the highest its been since 2011. Demand…

  • … but an E&Y study I wrote about yesterday claims they are creating value — with returns higher than the public markets — with some new “levers.” I’m not so sure. The businesses they have acquired are earning higher valuations on exit because the stock of their public-company peers is doing well.  “Multiples, which compressed significantly during…

  • Wouldn’t it be great to get 10% on a corporate bond again? Then again, the inflation rate was 11%. This post is really just an excuse to use Datawrapper. Here’s the interactive version. Related articles The Strategy of Monetary Policy: Larry Summers from 1991 (delong.typepad.com) Disinflation a Four-Letter Word For Gold (rvnewstoday.com) Is The Consumer…

  • Check out a great column on convertible bonds from an exec at Aequitas Advisors. convertible bonds short seller optionality strike price Aequitas Advisers Photo courtesy of Mighty Antar. Related articles Why convertible bonds are too expensive (investmentviking.wordpress.com) Tesla Shares Rally to Conversion Price, but Noteholders Won’t Strike…Yet (blogs.wsj.com) Alcatel-Lucent Issues $715 Million in Convertible Bonds…

  • As I wrote on CFO.com last week, LBO dealmakers have access to cheap debt. New proof of that came out today. According to Reuters, KKR got the cheapest borrowing rates ever for a leveraged buyout.  For the acquisition of Gardner Denver KKR is borrowing $2.4 billion in loans and $575 million in bonds. The blended…

  • The Seeking Wisdom blog on WordPress had a great post about the concept of margin of safety. Read it here. Among other points, he provides an excerpt of a 1984 speech on buying companies, by none other than Warren Buffett (boldface is Vembunarayanan’s). You also have to have the knowledge to enable you to make a…

  • The Goldman Sachs study on Too Big Too Fail, an S&P note on rising leveraged buyout valuations, and a data screen on the top companies with rising debt levels relative to EBITDA. Enjoy.

  • Anat Admati explains her plan for fixing the global banking system. Related articles You give me a capital requirement, I’ll give you a derivative to skirt it. (mathbabe.org) Quick Take: Banks Need More Skin in the Game (thestreet.com) Why the Party Could Be Over for Investment Bankers (live.wsj.com)