US LevFin Wrap — The LBO show

David Bell
+William Hoffman

7 September 2023•6 min read

The week after Labor Day can be weird in capital markets. As everyone settles back in after the holiday, it often feels disappointingly quiet to begin with — and then suddenly the calm is gone and there are new deals all over the place.

The wheels are definitely in motion this week, and blowout demand in the investment grade market bodes well for new deals on the calendar, which include LBO financings from Syneos Health, WorldPay and Fogo de Chao.

Loan investors already got a peek at Syneos this week, and while the bond roadshow doesn’t officially start until next Monday, demand was solid enough during premarketing for the underwriters to upsize the notes.

"There will be a lot of appetite for these LBOs,” said a credit investor. “Good stories will sell, as it’s hard to find double-digit yields in the market now.”

Syneos isn’t exactly a slam dunk “good story”, however. While the syndication appears to be going well so far, the juicy pricing on the debt reflects considerable uncertainty in the pharmaceutical research industry. Syneos’s backlog has been shrinking, and it’s seen some staff turnover — see our latest coverage for more.

WorldPay is also said to be receiving good feedback from investors as bankers line up roadshow meetings, but the company will face questions about its failed tie-up with FIS Global.

“It’s definitely a secular-growth business, but it’s awfully crowded, so we’ll be looking at profitability,” said one lender of WorldPay, whose underwriters are gearing up to syndicate the debt backing its $11.7bn buyout by GTCR.

On top of idiosyncratic credit issues, the market as a whole isn’t in quite as good shape as bankers and issuers might have hoped. The S&P 500 is down 1.5% this week, which contributed to high yield effective yields climbing another 25bps, according to ICE BofA data.

There’s plenty of pent-up demand among credit investors, but companies with trickier stories to tell — especially if they are more sensitive to higher interest costs — could decide to wait.

“Nothing seems to be flying off the shelf,” said a portfolio manager. “The equity market got punched in the face this week, and high yield is off just a little bit, so while technicals are in good shape it feels like we're kind of walking on eggshells.”

Get creative

Adding to next week’s pipeline of LBO financings is a $425m TLB for Creative Artists Agency, in connection with the company’s acquisition by French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, via his holding company Artemis. He’s buying out TPG, which has held its stake for a long time.

The agency is swept up in the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strike, but sources said the company’s talent roster is well diversified across sports and entertainment. For more on how those strikes are impacting names in the leveraged credit universe, check out our primer here.

And Deutsche Bank has announced syndication of a $550m TLB due 2030 to finance Bain’s acquisition of Brazilian restaurant chain Fogo de Chão. The lender call is next Monday.

There’s a bit of a restaurant theme, actually: this week Restaurant Brands added a giant slice of new supply with a new $4.16bn TLB. Alongside $1bn of other secured debt, proceeds will be used to refinance the company’s entire $5.16bn TLB due 2026.

Sources following the deal said it was largely a pricing exercise, given the strength of the credit (it’s rated Ba3/BB). They also sounded a note of caution, however — the company has made some shareholder-friendly moves as it recovers from Covid, such as boosting its dividend and authorizing greater stock buybacks.

On the other end of the scrutiny spectrum, Aventiv is likely to face a lot more questions if it decides to take another stab at refinancing its 2024 maturities. As we reported this week, the company is considering reviving efforts to refinance its debt, after shelving a TLB and bond deal back in May.

Investors have shied away from the credit because of reputational, regulatory and ESG concerns, but a recent improvement in the company’s earnings might help draw support.

Elsewhere, satellite operator Iridium Communications is also navigating a challenging sector backdrop. It’s looking to refinance its 2026 term loan with a new $1.5bn TLB due 2030, but is coming to market in the wake of two recent satellite failures at Viasat.

Feel the energy

Both Permian Resources and Crescent Energy came to the market to fund M&A deals this week, adding to a stream of such transactions this year in the sector that is only expected to grow in the coming weeks.

“Energy companies are coming opportunistically to fund M&A and I think that's what's going to be a driver of new issuance in the oil and gas space,” said Susan Brewster, a senior energy analyst at PPM America. “There's still a lot of companies repaying maturities with cash flow in the high yield space, so most of the new issue will be for M&A.”

Permian Resources is partially funding its $4.5bn acquisition of Earthstone Energy with new $500m 7% SUNs due 2032 that priced quickly in a drive-by deal on Wednesday.

But if you missed out on that deal, investors expect the company to issue debt again early next year to pay off more than $1bn of high-coupon Earthstone bonds that can be refinanced at much lower rates, as we detailed this week.

Crescent Energy came back to the market with its third deal of the year and the second add-on to its 9.25% SUNs due 2028. The $150m add-on brings the total to $850m raised this year.

The company is using this debt raise alongside an equity sale to increase its working interest in oil wells it already partially owns, effectively increasing cashflows without adding capex costs, according to a company press release.

A debt package to back Viper Energy’s $1bn acquisition of certain mineral and royalty interests from affiliates of Warwick Capital Partners and GRP Energy Capital could also hit the market soon.

And Canadian oil and gas producer Strathcona Resources — which is owned by PE firm Waterous Energy Fund — is also pre-marketing debt to fund its acquisition of Canadian-listed oil exploration company Pipestone Energy as part of a deal that will take Strathcona public.

Finally, while not a M&A deal, Canadian oil sands producer Greenfire Resources is in the market this week with $300m SSNs due 2028 that are talked at a juicy yield of 12%. The deal has some $200m of reverse orders ahead of its pricing scheduled for next week, but investors said they were skeptical of its unproven performance and small size.