Loan Ranger

After last week’s communication breakdown from Aviva Investors, Loan Ranger thought he had had his fill of awkward press communiqués for one summer. But that, of course, would be underestimating the mind-boggling lengths that investment firm PR teams will go to show that investment managers are JUST LIKE YOU.

Oh, how quickly loans bankers come alive when an exciting new money deal is being touted! Aspen’s $2bn M&A facility, launched last week, brought with it a tidal wave of praise — most notably from bankers not even on the deal. But that didn’t stop them having a giggle at the basic mathematical mistake in the Aspen invitation email from Bank of America Merrill Lynch — one of the lead banks.

Across the UK, Europe and even the world, breath is being held in eager anticipation.

Murray, sun, Pimm’s; Pimm’s, sun, Murray. For Loan Ranger, being only human, there has only been one concern over the last week: which of these three should take priority.

Loan Ranger’s final days of June were rather busy with actual office work, and so your trusty loans devotee only made it to one external event. And even that was fairly studious — a Standard and Poor’s conference on the state of leveraged finance and high yield bonds in Europe.

Not that you’d know it by looking out at the London skyline, but it is now well and truly summer. Apart from the weather, all the signs are there — the flurry of borrowers rushing to the market to squeeze a little deal out before the break, the familiar sight of out-of-office automatic emails as everybody migrates to sunnier climes and the unmistakable groaning of the Scandinavian market recovering from its Midsummer revelries.

Last week was one of those weeks when you throw the windows open or head out to the nearest terrace hoping to catch the slightest ray of sunshine, only to be driven back indoors by a persistent drizzle. That was certainly the case at Rabobank’s and Commerzbank’s summer parties, which drew bankers and journalists from far and wide, in spite of the weather.

If the Spice Girls can lose their sparkle — their London musical was cancelled last month — then surely even the most glittering of spectacles can lose its lustre. So, for all the excitement, glory and allure of the syndicated loan market, forgive Loan Ranger if his interest is occasionally piqued by the lure of an alternative career.

Sometimes, Loan Ranger comes over all Europhilic. Once in a while, he gets misty-eyed about the potential for a more cohesive European market, with lenders and borrowers acting consistently across the region, with country-specific quirks being seen as adding detail and interest to the market instead of dividing the continent into haves and have-nots.

If there’s one thing that makes Loan Ranger grin, it’s the dramatic words loans officials use when talking about the syndicated loan market. Marginally successful deals have become “blowouts”. What used to be called a blowout is now “the deal of the year”.

There’s a divide opening in the loans market. It’s been growing steadily since the start of the year and has now grown into such a schism that it is impossible for Loan Ranger to ignore.

Well, it seems that all that schmoozing has paid off. Loans are more appealing than at any point since 2007, say UK CFOs, according to a survey by Deloitte.