Carol J. Clouse

Investors Win Warner Chilcott Battle, But Expect a War

January 28, 2010 - Investors this week pushed back on Warner Chilcott’s attempt to reduce pricing on its $1.95 billion term loan B, but most don’t believe the market’s repricing fight is over...

Bad Buyouts and What We Could Do about Them

January 7, 2010 - Allied Stores. Burlington Industries. Charter Medical. E-H Holdings. Federated Department Stores… These companies are among the 13 that, between 1985 and 1989, issued a billion or more in junk bonds to help fund a buyout—then promptly went bankrupt...

A Repeat of 2009 Returns? Not. But No Disasters Either

December 10, 2009 - As we here at Leveraged Finance News join you in saying goodbye to 2009 and looking ahead at the year to come, two little words spring to mind: do over? Maybe not all of it, but certainly returns...

Cha-Ching! High Yield Brings High Bonuses

November 12, 2009 - While returns in the 40% to 50% range portend a 2009 Grinch-free holiday season for most leveraged loan and high yield bond professionals, those dedicated to selling and trading junk bonds are on track to receive the highest bonuses...

If the Leveraged Loan Market Were a Dance...

October 29, 2009 - If the leveraged loan market today were to break into an impromptu happy dance (oh, like you’ve never partaken in an impromptu happy dance) it would likely look more like, say, a Hustle than it would a … Breakdance...

European High Yield Rises from the Dead

October 22, 2009 - I supposed I could let Oct. 31 come and go without the gratuitous Halloween metaphor, but it is tough to resist—the European high yield bond market in 2008 really was dead enough to make the zombies staggering across the screen in 'Zombieland' look downright spry...

Don't Like Change? You'll Love the League Tables

October 1, 2009 - When Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr said, “The more things change, the more they remain the same,” he likely wasn’t referring the leveraged finance league tables...

Risky Business: More Than a Movie

September 24, 2009 - So I have a question for high yield loan and bond investors: Did your parents go away on vacation and leave you home alone? Are there underwear dances going on...

What's in Your Bailout for Me?

September 17, 2009 - This week, the “year after Lehman” week, we've seen a lot of reflection regarding the financial crisis—i.e. should Lehman Brothers have been saved? Has the stimulus worked? Should the government have done more? Or less? Or nothing...

Hey Loanasaurus, Watch the Bunnies and Don’t Get Bageled!

September 3, 2009 - The financial world has always served as a fertile breeding ground for language (for better or worse) and the debt markets are no exception. Words pop up to provide a name for new products or market phenomena, describe new trends...

It's Not Over until the Analyst Sings

August 26, 2009 - A majority of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal recently agree the recession is ending, and now we’re beginning to hear that the worst has come and gone from analysts focused on the corporate credit markets as well...

Welcome to the High Yield “$100,000 Pyramid”

August 13, 2009 - Here are your clues for the first category: The muses. A baseball team. Dante’s circles of hell. An especially popular symphony by Beethoven. A famous love potion. Deals on the high yield primary market Tuesday...

Why I Believe in Communism and the Motherland

July 30, 2009 - I’ll get right to the point: We need a single-payer health care system in this country. I know this option is off the table in the current health care debate, and many Americans (maybe you) wouldn’t have it any other way. But hear me out...

Oooh, Baby, Baby ... Push Back Good

July 23, 2009 - As few as six weeks ago, investors were lamenting the speed at which deals were hitting the high yield bond market—with banks announcing at 8 a.m. and closing at 4 p.m. the same day...

Come on You Default Junkies, You Know You Want It

July 16, 2009 - This is what I’m wondering: If you had two pots, and in one you dropped a nickel every time a company defaulted on its debt, and in the other you dropped a nickel every time an analyst made a prediction about default rates, which pot would poke its eyes out...