All eyes on bond market for loans revival

Hopes for the revival of the loan market — or at least, for the re-emergence of underwriting — appear to rest more than ever on the continued health of the European corporate bond market in Europe. This was the view expressed by 60% of voters in our weekly poll, who deemed that underwritten transactions like the $8.5bn deal for Merck in the US could only be replicated in Europe if the bond market held up. It was also one of the main points stressed by heads of loan syndicates at a conference in London last week, who argued that more emphasis was needed on takeout strategies. Read on for this week’s full poll results, and for coverage of last week’s discussions.