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Ryan Daniel

Laura Thompson

England football fans might have been bored after yesterday’s performance, but bankers and investors can’t have had the same complaint this week having been kept busy by a bullish market.

In fact, unlike the three lions, loan investors have stood firm in the face of pressure.

“The market is currently testing the limits of what’s possible,” said a buysider. “It’s encouraging to see Silae go from 350bps price talk to 375bps execution recently — it shows there is some pushback in the market.”

A busy European loan primary market is being mirrored by the European CLO primary market which has seen 44 different managers pricing a new issue this year, already matching last year's manager base. CLO spreads are edging tighter (but not to the same extent as loans) with CLO triple-As coming in at sub-135bps, with the latest deal from Palmer Square pricing triple-As at E+134bps.

Money continues to flow into the asset class, but are CLO managers and investors happy about the arbitrage potential available?

"People are never happy in the CLO world, they're more resigned to the fact that they'll make it work,” a sellsider said. ”375bps is the benchmark for a B2 and I think we’re heading to 350bps. A big driver of that is the M&A supply not being there yet."

Perhaps just like with this England team, we’ll have to keep waiting…

Check out our bond pre-marketing story for a French frozen food company here.

Sticking with the edible theme, we saw Upfield price €500m (from €400m) of 2029 SSNs at 6.875% and par, versus price talk in the low-7s.

Irish telco Eir priced €300m of 2029 SSNs at 5.75% on the tighter end of talk (5.75%-6%).

Dutch parking infrastructure owner Q-Park priced €550m of 2030 SSNs at 5.125% and 100 versus price talk of IPTs of “low-mid 5s”. We’ve also covered the name in the past here.

We also saw floating deals. First, in the form of British hotels company Travelodge which priced €250m of 2030 SSFRNs at E+375bps and £85m of 2028 SSNs at 10.25%, but also BestSecret which executed €550m of 2029 SSFRNs at E+375bps and 100 (versus price talk of E+425bps and 99.5 IPTs).

Serving as another reminder of how buoyant markets are, French nursery operator Babilou is offering a margin cut (if it ends on the tighter end), instead of uplift, for its A&E. Price talk is guiding towards E+375bps-400bps and 99.75, versus 400bps existing.

Babilou is extending its €797m TLB from 2027 to 2030 and issuing a fungible €50m add-on/partial delayed draw term loan (DDTL). The latter will be used to fund about €18m of bolt-on M&A, repay €23m of RCF drawings, and add €4m cash to balance sheet, according to S&P.

Although one source described leverage as “punchy”, they said they were comfortable rolling.

Another buysider, also a holder, said: “I’m happy it’s in market as it’s the right time to A&E.”

You can read more in our deal preview here.

A chunky dividend and geographic concentration risk weren’t enough to put investors off PAI Partners-backed Apleona due to its sticky business, revenue visibility and inflation protection.

The deal landed on the tighter end at E+375bps and 100 versus price talk of E+400bps and 99.75.

Investors accept, rather than relish the dividend use of proceeds, which at least brings more new money supply to market.

A sellsider said: “The sponsor tried to sell it but now they’re taking out a dividend. For the right credit, it makes sense.”

A buysider, who likes the name and has been in it for a while, agreed, saying they’re “never happy to see a recap, but we’ll take what we can if the credit is right.”

Spanish Aernnova — which supplies aeroplane components including wings and sections of fuselage, largely for Airbus and Embraer — also upsized its A&E to €540m (from €515m) this week, despite some ESG concerns from some lenders speaking with 9fin.

“I’m actually a big fan of the credit, but we avoid anything with defence exposure in our CLOs,” said one lender.

The deal launched at E+425bps-450bps and 99.5, up from existing margin of E+300bps in January 2020. Final pricing was E+400bps and 100. Aernnova marketed on €104m of LTM March 24 EBITDA, sources said, with leverage at around 6x.

“We’re gonna pass but not because of ESG concerns; more about leverage and pricing — it’s pretty levered because of Covid,” said another buysider.

The cyclical nature of the commercial aerospace, as well as the notoriously congested aviation supply chain, are risks for some lenders. Aernnova also has a sizable exposure to the less popular widebody aircraft, but a strong backlog and exclusive contracts with OEMs on its part strengthen revenue visibility.

Spain-based medical equipment distributor Palex’s €30m-upsized €790m deal priced at E+375bps and 100 from initial price talk of E+400-425bps and 99.75.

“I looked last year and I passed,” said a lender. “Sometimes you have to admit you got it wrong.”

The deal — marketed on €148m of LTM April 24 EBITDA for 5.0x net leverage, lenders said — supports the acquisitions of Duomed Group and Izasa, which is also financed by €325m of equity, Moody’s wrote. The move is projected to nearly double Palex’s revenues from €478m to €914m.

“Previously, I’d thought it was too concentrated in Spain, that it was on the small side — they’ve addressed all that now,” the lender went on. “Diversification is key for this one, by customer and by OEM, and it’s gone in the right direction.”

As covered in our deal preview, Partner in Pet Food is in the market with a seven-year €750m TLB to refinance existing debt and fund a shareholder payout, just a few weeks after owner Cinven rejected a joint bid from Advent and CVC to take over the business.

“It’s an opportunistic deal as they’re substantially releveraging the company,” a buysider said. “But markets are very strong at the moment and sponsors can successfully test investors with the right pricing.”

The transaction has guidance of E+400-425bps and 99.5 OID.

German rehab clinic provider Median Kliniken priced its €100m (from €80m) 2027 TLB add-on at E+500bps and 97.5, versus price talk of E+500bps and 97-97.5.

“They had a couple years of poor performance, but thereafter growth has been very strong,” said one buysider. “I was surprised it was launched to the general market rather than just being wrapped up with existing lenders. If you’re in it, it’s easy, but if not where’s the incentive?”

A familiar favourite amongst investors, Action Retail is in market with an upsized dual-tranche TLB deal of €2.1bn-equivalent (from €1.75bn). Check out our previous coverage on the name.

Price talk is guiding towards S+300bps and 99.5 for the dollar tranche and E+325bps and 99.75 for the euros.

Whilst one buysider said they weren’t interested due to tight pricing, another was suprised by the loan deal for another reason.

"I was expecting a bond launch from this company, really. Everyone's already all over this one. Maybe that's why they've got so much USD in the deal."

Team.blue announced a chunky upsize to its existing facility (€400m minimum versus €278m add-on proposed). This could go up to a €1.688bn maximum (€278m plus extension of €1.41bn euro TLB).

Finnish property maintenance specialist PHM Group priced its €300m 2031 TLB at E+475bps and 99 versus price talk of E+450-475bps, another example of investor pushback, albeit at wider levels, against overly optimistic issuers.

A buysider said: “I just did a quick pass on this one to be honest — it’s only €300m so the tranche size is just a bit small and I’m not familiar with the sponsor.”

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