Real estate data firm CoreLogic Inc. is set to sell the largest acquisition-related loan in over a year as borrowers continue to take advantage of insatiable demand from yield-starved investors.
CoreLogic, known in the real estate industry for its home-price indexes, plans to sell a $4 billion offering to help finance its buyout by Stone Point Capital and Insight Capital. It’s the largest acquisition-related loan since Zayo Group Holdings Inc. issued a $4.75 billion deal in February 2020. CoreLogic’s loan commitment deadline is among about a dozen due next week while two lender meetings are on deck.
Acquisition financing is booming and expected to gather steam as the economic outlook brightens. Apollo Global Management sold $4.1 billion in bonds and loans to help finance its acquisition of arts and crafts retailer Michaels Cos. this week.
SCIH Salt Holdings Inc. will be marketing $1.8 billion in senior secured junk bonds to help finance its Morton Salt acquisition and to complete others. Nineteen junk-rated companies have raked in nearly $15 billion just this week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Barclays predicts total junk bond and leveraged loan supply will reachabout $860 billion this year -- far exceeding the 2013 record of roughly $700 billion -- as firms look to refinance obligations in the face of rising Treasury yields that could push borrowing costs higher in the months ahead.
Blue-chip companies may price as much as $25 billion of new bonds next week, according to an informal survey of underwriters. One company elected to stand down Thursday and is expected to wait until next week before reemerging.
The biggest Wall Street banks will kick off quarterly earnings, which can be a harbinger for investment-grade issuance. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co. report on Wednesday, while Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. on Thursday. Morgan Stanley will announce results on Friday.
While U.S. banks’ balance sheets remain flush with deposits, loan growth is likely to remain soft in first half of 2021, according to CreditSights analysts Jesse Rosenthal and Peter Simon. They expect banks to be asked for details on the Archegos Capital Management fund blowup and risk management for the prime brokerage business generally.
The implosion of Bill Hwang’s hedge fund highlighted how strong most of the financial companies’ balance sheets are, according to Anders Persson, chief investment officer of global fixed income at Nuveen.
Non-bank borrowers free to sell bonds after reporting earnings next week include PepsiCo Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and Alcoa Corp.
In the distressed debt world, a number of expiration and forbearance deadlines are set for the week, starting with Voyager Aviation Holdings LLC, which faces an early tender deadline for its proposed debt exchange on Monday. Two days later, Washington Prime Group Inc.’s forbearance expires after the mall operator missed payments on its notes.
GTT Communications Inc.’s forbearance deadline with lenders, which has been pushed off for weeks, is currently set to expire on Thursday. Transocean Inc. has a coupon payment on its 2031 unsecured notes due that same day. KKR & Co.’s Envision Healthcare Corp. also has a coupon due for its notes due 2026.
