Market frets over bleak leveraged loan pipeline

摘要

After a bumper January for European leveraged loans, when several deals lined up at the end of 2015 cleared the market, bankers are concerned that the pipeline for new deals looks very thin. Only two deals - US software maker solera holdings' cross-border US$1.9bn Term Loan B, including an expected €500m tranche, and Netherlands-based testing company element materials' US$535m~equivalent debt package -have so far been launched in February, and there is little underwritten for the coming weeks. "We always seem to expect busy Januarys and deals slip into February - but not this year," said one senior loan banker.