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Despite the week’s headlines, levfin investors head into Valentine’s weekend with some pep in their step.

After Wednesday’s hotter-than-expected US CPI inflation print, investors have priced in fewer (and possibly no) Fed rate cuts in 2025. According to Deutsche Bank’s macro strategy team, it was the strongest monthly print for core CPI since April 2023. On Wednesday, the US 10-year Treasury yield posted its biggest daily jump of the year (+8.6bps), moving up to 4.62%.

But markets rallied from Thursday as President Trump said US reciprocal tariffs would not come before April. Investors viewed this dovishly, as the press conference had few immediate specifics.

Tariffs are an evolving story but 9fin has covered both sides of the pond here, here and here.

Despite all this, levfin technicals remain strong as covered here. CLO triple-As have tightened to E+120bps, and sources suggest new issues could print even tighter.

The market awaits meaningful new money supply, but maybe it’s just delayed in the post…

For now, what’s more romantic than facilities management?

This morning, PAI Partners announced its sale of German real estate service provider Apleona to Bain Capital.

Apleona last tapped levfin markets in July 2024 for a dividend as reported — the first to PAI Partners since it acquired Apleona in 2020. The deal was marketed on net leverage of 4.3x and March 2024 structuring EBITDA of €397m.

Investors at the time were willing to accept a dividend given its solid credit story, but additional LBO debt backing Bain Capital’s acquisition would charm.

Check out our sponsors analysis to see our review of 2024’s deals and 2025 outlook across loans and high yield. In case you missed it, find 9fin’s new sponsor profiles here.

Leveraged loans

And what sweet Valentine’s gifts did the loan market bring us this week? We had two new private credit refis testing their chemistry with the syndicated market, bringing new money supply for otherwise lonely investors. Colosseum Dental Group and property services firm PHM Group both launched €1bn deals this week — we flagged each ahead of launch (here and here).

And sources say they’re wall-crossed on multiple other private credit refinancings to come.

“You’ve got to ask how many eligible direct lending deals there are still out there and you can see that in some stretched cases,” said one investor.

Elsewhere, eligible suitors abound. Double-B Minimax Viking sailed a €1.7bn-equivalent loan into market this week, guiding to a slim two-handle on the tighter end on the euros. The dual-currency deal supports ICG's re-investment in the business.

And more repricings hit. Socotec is out to cut as much as 50bps off, as is chemicals business Univar. Ophthalmology platform Veonet is angling for as much as 100bps off its margin, although Syntegon settled guidance at the wider end of E+325-350bps today, meaning just a 25bps cut for that credit.

The repricings include a crop of 2024 deals — like bin business Sulo Group, which hit the syndicated market less than 12 months ago with a sub-€100m EBITDA. Now it could throw out 100bps of margin. Partner in Pet Food has ground pricing down to E+300bps and par, chopping 75bps off its June 2024 deal, and caterer Areas is essentially walking back the margin uplift lenders got in its 2024 A&E with this year’s repricing.

“It’s a lot,” said one portfolio manager. “There’s the temptation to manage your portfolio by taking another look at higher-spread, but more borderline credits. But then it’s easy to go down that path and find yourself with a portfolio that gets out of hand.”

Weekly leveraged loan movers

Here’s a look at loans in market:

Here’s a look at which loans recently priced:

High yield

European high yield primary has been muted this week. It’s earnings season so borrowers effectively need to wait to report their Q4 numbers before issuing any bonds as they can't use September 24 figures to market a potential deal.

Itallian Rekeep’s €360m SSNs were the only issuance for the week and it upsized by €10m to cover related fees. It priced at 900bps and 97.5 OID.

Weekly high yield movers

Here’s a look at what bonds recently priced:

Forward pipeline

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