Loan Ranger

Credit Suisse likes Italian art. Loan Ranger also does – when it involves canapés, a few drinks and lots and lots of big-cheese bankers.

To the dedicated investment banker, there is one thing – and one thing only – sweeter than clinching a deal. That thing is being quoted in GlobalCapital. A close third to both of those is being quoted in a front page story in a salmon-coloured financial newspaper.

Finance is a famously jargon-heavy discipline. Loan Ranger, of course, has come to master the intricacies of loans lingo over the years: mandated lead arrangers, covenants, revolvers and pipelines hold no secrets for him.

Business is business and politics is politics and never the twain shall meet. It’s a pretty thought, but not one that holds true among lenders.

Many things can go wrong on the day of a deal signing. But every now and then Loan Ranger hears of some issue arising which convinces him that some loans bankers purposefully make their own days infinitely more stressful.

Almost the entire leveraged finance team at JP Morgan headed to the US last week for the bank’s annual high yield conference. The venue, however, was not just any old dreary seminar space.

For the news-obsessed journo, where better to go these days than Turkey? With continual rioting in Istanbul, a corruption scandal that’s already engulfed three government ministers and countless police officers, and the dramatic effect of the US's QE tapering on the Turkish lira, it is a world of wonder for a keen reporter.

While the bond desks were busy getting the full details on EDF's 100 year bond, Loan Ranger's thoughts last week turned to the world that the bond will expire in, and how even the best intentioned long term project finance loans can hope to compete.

What was the main focus of chatter at BNP Paribas’s High Yield and Leveraged Finance Conference last week in London? The brochure said it was all about the state of the market, structuring trends, the outlook for private equity, and other such geeky delights. But away from the glitzy lights of the stage, there was something much more French occupying the minds of the conference delegates.

Bureaucracy contains both good and bad. The bad parts are the pedantry, the endless forms, the waiting two weeks for something to be approved only to wait two more weeks to have the approval returned to you. The good parts are when a loans market colleague falls foul of The Man and tells it all to Loan Ranger in one, exasperated email.

Trudging back to the office this rainy morning, Loan Ranger felt the customary dread that comes with returning to work after any extended period away from his desk.

Last week, for the 12th year running, the Loan Syndicate Managers’ Forum congregated in St Lawrence Jewry for its annual Christmas carol service. A delightful affair but one now so steeped in tradition it cannot hold any surprise? Think again.