Borrowers shun loan market as demand wanes

摘要

Borrowers that have historically turned to the US leveraged loan market are instead looking to high-yield bonds to refinance existing loans as bank debt becomes more costly and hard to access while demand for the asset class drops. Health insurer MOLINA HEALTHCARE and food distributor DEL MONTE FOODS raised a combined US$1.3bn in bonds to repay their term loans in May. Artificial intelligence firm CERENCE followed suit raising US$150m in convertible bonds to partially repay a US$270m syndicated loan. Also last month, bmc software issued US$1.35bn in high-yield bonds to fund its acquisition of peer Compuware, underscoring the attractiveness of bonds versus institutional loans.