The leveraged loan market had its busiest week since the summer of 2007.
As of Thursday, banks had shopped roughly 20 term loans totaling more than $11 billion. The largest deal announced was a $2.5 billion term loan that will be used to back the roughly
Then on Friday, a bank consortium began shopping a $1.025 billion term loan that is backing The Carlyle Group's
The banks shopping the Syniverse loans — Barclays PLC, Credit Suisse Group AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. — have established price talk on the loan is at Libor plus 425 bps, with an original issue discount of 99 and a 1.5% Libor floor. The banks have also arranged a $150 million revolver. Credit Suisse is shopping a $475 million bridge loan.
The Carlyle Group is contributing approximately $1.245 billion of equity to the deal, which will leverage Syniverse, a Tampa, Fla.-based mobile-phone messaging provider, at 5.6x on a total basis, according to Standard & Poor's.
Regarding the Del Monte loan, the banks arranging it — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch unit and KKR Capital Markets — had not said when they will begin the syndication process or how they will price the loan.
The banks have also arranged an unsecured bridge loan that could be as large as $1.6 billion and a $500 million revolver to help Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Vestar Capital Partners and Centerview Partners purchase Del Monte.
Other deals that launched this week included a $1.5 billion term loan for Novelis and a $1.55 billion term loan for TransDigm.
"I think there is plenty of demand [for primary deals]," a Canadian investor said. "Unless a particular deal is way off market in terms of leverage, structure, or yield, then I think most deals will get done fairly easily."
Meanwhile, more than $10 more billion more is waiting on the sidelines, according to S&P.
