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If this week showed us anything, it’s that even today’s bullish primary market isn’t all one-way traffic.

On the one hand, debt investors are scrambling to buy into some tightly priced new issue deals, such as Cotiviti’s$5bn term loan package to fund its buyout by KKR, which is being offered at SOFR+350bps with a 99.5 OID and was oversubscribed at launch.

At the same time, buysiders have been less enthusiastic about refinancing deals from Gray Television and Getty Images. Both borrowers withdrew their refi attempts earlier this week, after struggling to drum up enough demand at offered pricing levels.

In Gray’s case, the TV station operator quietly shelved its $1.19bn five-year TLB refinancing last Friday after media giants Disney, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery announced plans to create a joint sports streaming service this fall.

Left lead Wells Fargo had been shopping the facility at SOFR+375-400bps with a 99 OID, in line with deals from other double-B rated credits. However, both equity and debt investors saw the merger as a possible negative for Gray and its peers in the local TV space, given the importance of live sports content (for a deeper dive on the deal, click here).

Meanwhile, visual media provider Getty Images publicly announced that it had pulled its dual-tranche $1.38bn term loan refinancing attempt yesterday. Management noted that potential interest savings from the deal were “below expectations.”

Getty has a fairly solid B1/B+ corporate rating, but sources we spoke to earlier this week cited emerging AI technology as a possible disruptor to its business. That could help explain why buysiders were reluctant to buy in at price talk of SOFR+375bps with a 99-99.5 OID.

This week was light for high yield supply, and this low supply was compounded by paper being taken out of the market.

Industrial manufacturer Ball Corporation was one borrower to use this strategy this week, announcing on Wednesday a tender offer to retire its senior notes due 2025 and 2026 with the proceeds of its $5.6bn aerospace business carve-out.

Cotiviti notwithstanding, activity was also relatively quiet for leveraged loans (albeit relative to the frenzied activity of January) with one portfolio manager observing that supply so far this year has still been “lighter than expected.”

Despite this week’s slower pace and some pulled deals, Cotiviti was not the only buyout to spark interest in the primary market this week.

Buysiders we spoke to seemed optimistic about Swiss oil and gas services provider Rosen Group’s $1.45bn dual-tranche term loan to back its acquisition by Partners Group, given the company’s ability to capitalize on the growing needs of the booming oil and gas industry.

The company, which opted to raise debt in the broadly syndicated market after drawing private credit interest during its auction, is offering the loan at SOFR+375-400bps with a 98.5-99 OID. Commitments on that deal are due by 22 February.

Elsewhere, United Airlines managed to upsize its term loan refinancing from $2bn to $2.5bn, as well as pricing the facility tight to talk at SOFR+275bps with a 0bps floor and 99.5 OID earlier today.

Debt investors we spoke to were largely willing to shrug off concerns around how Boeing’s Max 9 groundings could impact United, pointing to its strong $6bn cash position and solid history of managing its debt load.

Natural gas provider Whistler Pipeline also saw success in the primary market this week. The company tightened price talk on a $540m term loan — to fund its buyout by I Squared Capital — to SOFR+275bps with a 99.5 OID earlier today.

A portfolio manager following the Whistler deal said the borrower’s solid credit rating and simple management structure ahd helped convince lenders to buy in despite the relatively tight price talk.

“Whistler is smaller than some of the other high yield names in the space and price talk was pretty tight, but we still plan to buy in,” the PM said. “It’s got a good rating and a simple ownership structure, which makes it easier for them to invest in growth.”

Another bright spot: Osaic’s $500m add-on loan to fund its acquisition of Lincoln Financial’s wealth management business. The deal launched yesterday with price talk of SOFR+450bps with a 99.25-99.5 OID. The main caveat is that cash-sweep income could drop if interest rates go down.

Stay tuned to see if any new paper comes out after the Presidents’ Day holiday, or if the market will give us some respite after the manic repricing activity of recent weeks — some people could clearly do with a break.

“We’ve been so overwhelmed with all the repricings,” said a PM. “It’s hard to get book color on deals, because everyone just comes in with orders the day commitments are due, so we’re all scrambling to keep up.”

Carlyle, KKR raise the stakes for rainmakers to deliver returns (Bloomberg)

Viking Cruises weighs US IPO of $500 million or more (Bloomberg)

How an unremarkable deal became a big threat to a small investment bank (WSJ)

Chinese-backed solar factory stirs suspicions in rural Ohio (Financial Times)

OpenAI introduces Sora, its text-to-video AI model (The Verge)

Warren Buffett’s Squishmallows firm sues Build-A-Bear amid ‘knock-off’ claims (Guardian)

Nine hours at the most unhinged hole in golf (Business Insider)

Ex-Goldman Sachs banker who 'tried to talk his way out of' arrest is convicted of insider trading (New York Post)

Millennials brought Abercrombie back. Is its market moment over? (Bloomberg)

Billionaire Nelson Peltz charged Wendy's burger chain $600K for security services: filing (New York Post)

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