Premier corporates locking in large refinancing facilities for seven years in Europe and five years in the US dominated the first half of the year, but M&A activity has since risen to its highest level since 2000. After five years of aggressive deleveraging, corporates are now sufficiently debt free to pursue expansion and acquisition plans. And given that the cost of money has rarely been cheaper, the market could be on the cusp of major revival in M&A, even if high liquidity means the

Australian M&A financing dominates the regional market for such deals. Volumes so far this year, at US$15.94bn, have already exceeded 2004's full-year figures of US$15.09bn and are set to climb further. The continuing growth in M&A volumes has sparked fierce competition among lenders with an increasing number of bankers focusing on M&A financing. “There is more money to be made in M&A and banks have focused strategies on getting a piece of the M&A pie,” said a senior banker. “Banks are aggressiv

There is no question that the one development that has most pleased Asia’s loan bankers in 2005 is the growth of acquisition financing. Until this year, only Australia had seen a steady flow of such deals, with Asia (ex-Japan) seeing only sporadic issuance. However, this year has been different. Australia still tops the year-to-date acquisition financing tables, but other markets are also getting into the act. Ex-Australasia acquisition volumes have reached US$5.63bn – their best since year 2000

The highly liquid Latin American loan market has seen tightening margins on new-money deals and refinancings, longer tenors and transactions going into general syndication already oversubscribed. Telmex, the Mexican telecom, was the latest example of this, as its aggressive refinancing of a US$2.425bn facility put together in July 2004 saw demand of US$3.2bn in the preliminary phase and was set to be increased to just over US$2.7bn. The four-year tranche was priced at a 30bp over Libor margin an

According to data from Thomson Financial, Russian companies have raised over US$20bn in the syndicated loan market so far this year, easily overtaking 2004's full-year figure of US$13.8bn. And assuming that loans like Gazprom's US$12bn jumbo for its expected takeover of Sibneft proceed, the Russian loan market is set to break not just volume records but be on track to be one of the largest in Europe. The glut of cheap money sloshing around the European and the wider emerging markets is one reaso

Buoyed by an oil price that has bounced around record highs all year, the Middle East is enjoying an economic boom. And with this comes a renewed confidence to invest in infrastructure and a new cycle of international corporate expansion. Accompanying this economic assertiveness, over the past year there has been an explosion in lending volumes with around US$32bn raised on the syndicated loan markets so far this year. And in a borrower friendly environment, the popularity of the region has mean

Just as loan pricing has fallen significantly in Western Europe this year, central European borrowers have enjoyed heavily reduced pricing. However, unlike the western European market, which has seen virtually every corporate borrower of size put in place a finely priced loan, a dearth of sizeable borrowers in central Europe has meant deal flow has been slower and, hence, the fall in pricing starker. Although large central European borrowers have not been overly active in the loan market, Hungar

Overall, this has been a good year for the investment-grade loan market. Year-to-date there have been 410 deals worth US$490.57bn, well up from the 365 deals worth US$311.537bn booked in the same period last year, according to data from Thomson Financial. Bankers were not so optimistic when the year began, however, as the main developments of the past few years continued unabated and if anything in more exaggerated form. In short, the excess of liquidity compressed pricing, pushed tenors out and

The US syndicated loan market proved its mettle in 2005 as record liquidity absorbed chunky institutional loans backing jumbo LBOs. Leveraged loan volumes grew in 2005 as supply hit US$79bn in the first quarter, US$68bn in the second quarter and was approaching US$53.06bn as the third quarter drew to an end, according to data from Thomson Financial. More than US$60bn of this backed LBOs as improving economic conditions and an accommodating lending environment empowered the private equity communi

If 2004 was mezzanine's year as asset of choice in leveraged lending, this year must belong to second-lien. Previously regarded as a US financing tool, use of the asset class has rocketed since Brenntag introduced it to the European market in 2003, with over 30 deals making use of it so far this year. The growth is just one more indicator of the abundance of liquidity that continues to dominate the market. As new sources of liquidity have opened up in the shape of credit funds, CDOs and hedge fu