Levloan borrower clout stumbles, but will continue to grow

The power of corporate borrowers in the leveraged loan market has taken a beating in the last three weeks. Investor pushback drove changes of terms on a series of deals, the most recent being the term loan ‘B’ portion of a €7.5bn facility for DE Master Blenders. But this is just a blip. Borrower clout in the leveraged market is still growing, and the shift to the dominance of covenant-lite deals looks inevitable.