LatAm Loans

The European leveraged finance market at last seems to have found a way to begin clearing its backlog of unsold loans in a way that pleases everyone. Arrangers of the Boots and Endemol have managed to coordinate between them and discount deals in an orderly way, without forcing all the bookrunners to participate.

Belgian brewer InBev has mandated eight banks to arrange a syndicated loan of at least $40bn to back its unsolicited bid for American peer Anheuser-Busch, made late last night.

As the credit crunch deepened last year, banks from the CIS began to look like some of the most unpopular credits for Western banks to lend to. Obstinate on price and suspiciously fast-growing, they smelt of bubble. But this spring a new crop of deals has blossomed. Russian and Ukrainian banks have got the message, increased their pricing a long way, and are raising heavily oversubscribed and enlarged loans. So far, the recovery is impressive — but it has still not embraced the smaller banks.

BANKERS IN Europe’s syndicated loan market reacted with excitement this week to the news that InBev, the Belgian brewer, was sounding out banks about a jumbo facility to back a potential takeover of American rival Anheuser-Busch