Refinitiv last week closed a $14.25 billion leveraged loan and high yield bond package backing the LBO of Thomson Reuters’ Financial & Risk business by private equity concern Blackstone, successfully testing just how big a deal can get done in today’s red-hot global leveraged finance market.
Indeed, despite its size—Refinitiv is the second-largest LBO financing since the financial crisis—and deal structure that some in market called aggressive, banks arranging the transaction reduced the interest rate on offer to investors during the syndications process, and commitments to the loan portion of the deal topped the $9.25 billion final amount, indicating strong investor demand for leveraged loan assets, both in the U.S. and in Europe.
The high yield bond portion of the financing ended at $4.25 billion after being reduced to compensate for an increase in the loan.
As well as being the second-largest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis, Refinitiv is the ninth-largest leveraged finance deal of all time, according to LCD. Leveraged finance entails leveraged loans and bonds to speculative grade issuers.
Try LCD for Free! News, analysis, data
LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.