The wildfire smog was an apt backdrop for Covanta’s new $430m loan offering, which will repay the cash its sponsor EQT spent to acquire Circon. Covanta’s waste incinerators have been linked to clouds of toxic smoke, but the sustainability-linked market welcomed it with open arms.

Contract research organization Fortrea also provided some new money paper for investors to fund its spin-out from Labcorp. This solo venture comes just as many biotech companies — which make up a big chunk of Fortrea’s client base — are pulling back on spending.

The deal is the third episode of CRO activity in the leveraged finance space in recent weeks, following a $1.25bn bond deal from IQVIA and a hotly contested auction for Syneos Health that is set to be financed in the syndicated markets. 

Nashville hot

In the high yield market, Ryman Hospitality raised $400m of 7.25% SUNs due 2028. Alongside a recent equity follow-on, proceeds will help fund the $800m acquisition of a San Antonio hotel resort from Blackstone. 

The hotel REIT, which also owns several Nashville music venues, has hit all the right notes with debt investors lately. Its venues and hotel properties are performing well thanks to strong consumer demand for travel and experiences.

Last month, the company termed out its 2024 term loan debt with a new $500m TLB due 2030, which was upsized and priced tight to talk.

This kind of refinancing and amend-and-extend activity is still dominating the primary market. LBO activity is slowly warming up again, but sources said there’s not a massive amount of appetite on the borrower side given the cost of financing. 

There’s some potential buyout debt on the way, with middle-market sponsor CapVest considering a syndicated financing package as it circles specialty grocer Quirch Foods. See our full story on that here.

Aside from that, some observers are questioning how attractive the refi window is in what is typically a busy period ahead of summer vacations.

“It’s not clear to me if the refi opportunity window exists now or not,” said one levfin lawyer. “I think people are stuck between the idea of a maturity extension and the certainty of an interest rate increase.”

Be more direct

Of course, these days private credit is often a more appealing option. 

KKR went the direct lending route to fund its $1.6bn acquisition of Circor, with Ares and Apollo getting involved in the $650m loan, according to 9fin sources. See our full story here. 

More take-private financing is likely to head to direct lenders until the cost and certainty of broadly syndicated debt improves, sources said.

“I look at Circor as an indication of what’s to come,” said one portfolio manager looking at the deal. “I think LBOs will come back when you get more certainty of rate moves and financing costs…maybe you will see more LBOs print wide in the second half and if they print wide maybe you get a chance to refi later.”

Speaking of refis, trampoline park operator CircusTrix is working with Piper Sandler on a potential refinancing of its privately-held debt stack, as we reported earlier this week. Earnings at the company, which is owned by Palladium Equity, have bounced back after plummeting during the pandemic.

In this week’s Unicrunch — our new private credit newsletter, you can sign up here — we look at how massive fundraising efforts by a handful of major players like HPS and Oaktree may be skewing the market further towards the heavy hitters. 

We also spoke with one of those heavy hitters for our latest Cloud 9fin podcast: Craig Packer of Blue Owl.

Crackdown

It was a tough week for crypto: firstly, Coinbase bonds dropped into the 50s this week after the SEC sued the company for allegedly violating US securities law. Maybe it’s a good thing the company didn’t choose to use its cash reserves to buy back bonds?

Then on Friday, its competitor Binance US suspended trading activity after it was also hit with a lawsuit from the SEC. Banking partners signaled they would no longer facilitate the movement of dollars on the platform.

It was also a challenging few days for Carvana. The online used car retailer cancelled a $1bn debt swap after failing to gain enough support from lenders. Perhaps the Apollo-PIMCO led creditor pact is holding together?

One last thing: check out our new AI-powered transcripts tool. Not to toot our own horn too loudly, but it’s pretty awesome and could save you a lot of time. 

Other stuff

Blue Owl erupts into civil war (Semafor)

Carvana cancels $1 billion debt swap as creditors hold out (Bloomberg)

Twitter’s US ad sales plunge 59% as woes continue (NYT)

How much does it cost to live in NYC? (NY Magazine)

US was aware of Ukrainian plot to attack Nord Stream pipeline (FT)

Merck sues over law empowering Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers (NYT)

Nvidia’s AI software tricked into leaking data (FT)