From the sounds of it, May was more about what people caught rather than missed. Everybody and his or her dog have been down with a cold or some other lurgy – and it’s hardly surprising that the loan market itself has been less than sprightly.
To put it more bluntly, the market has been under the covers in a cold sweat with a bottle of Lucozade.
Sneeze-in-May-and-go-away has taken its toll on deals, it appears, with emerging markets not very emerging and leveraged loans only leveraged to a 30 degree incline on some pillows, watching a Greek soap opera on daytime TV.
The Loan Ranger himself got a good dose of the germs and felt the fever. Well, if you’ve been paying attention over recent weeks you already know how that went…
But the good news from the worlds of leveraged and emerging market loans – at least so we hear – is that June is going to be better.
After five weeks of silence, at least two Russian borrowers are expected to come to market at some point this month. Middle East loans have a two week window to go wild before Ramadan kicks in, while Africa and Turkey also promise to be the life and soul of the party.
Primary deals look set for a return in leveraged loans after a run of refinancings. Although don’t expect too much joy in the term sheets – they remain an aggressive bunch, this lot.
Speaking of which, Loan Ranger got no sympathy for this cold last week in the GlobalCapital versus Metal Bulletin football match, which looks set to become a grudge event. GlobalCapital’s athletes limbered up and tried to inspire awe in the opposition by performing the Global Hakapital.
Only to see that Metal Bulletin, true to their name, were dressed in suits of armour, with spikes and wielding halberds.
At least, that’s what we’re telling people back in the office to explain our ignominious defeat.
Revenge will be ours.