A $125 million piece of the bankrupt Exide Technologies bank debt was said to have traded in the high 70s this week, leaving the paper quoted in the 78 1/2-80 range. The seller of the piece is believed to be one of the large stakeholders in the bank debt who decided to sell some of their exposure to the company following the bankruptcy court’s decision to deny confirmation of Exide’s reorganization plan. This decision sent creditors back to the negotiation table. The buyer of the paper could not be determined by press time.
The judge’s decision created a degree of uncertainty for how the reorganization would progress and the seller most likely decided that 80 cents on the dollar was a good price to sell down some of its exposure, speculated one buysider. In connection with the judge’s ruling, the court set Exide’s enterprise value between $1.4-1.6 billion.
HealthSouth Corp .’s revolver, meanwhile, rallied right up under par and was quoted in the 98-99 context following the company’s business update presentation. Traders said the bank debt rallied partly due to sentiment that the company would eventually refinance the revolver and because of the loan’s relatively rich interest rate. Most importantly, however, the company was able to reassure stakeholders that HealthSouth’s business is on the right track and that the leverage is manageable, explained one buysider.
The loan had been slowly ticking up since the financial fraud at HealthSouth was revealed last March. The paper was quoted in the low 90s toward the end of last year. The company has about $374 million on its revolver, according to the presentation slides. Calls to Guy Sansone, a managing director with turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal and cfo for HealthSouth, were not returned by press time.