M&A loans gobbled up but aren’t enough to sate banks’ appetites

The syndication of German pharmaceutical company Merck’s $15.6bn of loans for its acquisition of US life sciences firm Sigma-Aldrich was the latest in a series of transatlantic M&A related loans for investment grade German borrowers to close oversubscribed. Banks have plenty of cash and are keen to use it, but a trend for large tickets and slim banking groups means there may not be enough to go around.