Loan Ranger

Finally August is here! The countdown clock that Silver has been watching since last September has finally run down, and the blessed summer break is here.

Looking up at the smoke coming from the rooftop of Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Wednesday, Tonto couldn’t help but worry that the loan market had taken a step backwards and had decided to replace the trusty fax machine with the even more technologically basic smoke-signals. Of course, he breathed a huge sigh of relief when it turned out to be bank’s EMEA DCM summer barbeque and drinks in progress.

Looking up at the smoke coming from the rooftop of Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Wednesday, Tonto couldn’t help but worry that the loan market had taken a step backwards and had decided to replace the trusty fax machine with the even more technologically basic smoke-signals. Of course, he breathed a huge sigh of relief when it turned out to be bank’s EMEA DCM summer barbeque and drinks in progress.

Loan Ranger is the loving and giving type and is always keen to hear of similar charitably-minded individuals around the market. But saying that, there’s doing a good deed and then there’s masochism. Take Jon Davies at Lloyds, for example.

SocGen held its summer party last week. The bank has a habit of picking among the wettest days of the year to host the annual shindig, which is somewhat unfortunate given it’s held in the iconic courtyard of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. But this time it got its timing spot on, the weather being perfect for the event.

So that’s it for England. Their miserable World Cup campaign came to an ignominious end on Sunday afternoon after a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Germany. Ok, it was really 4-2. But Lampard’s goal that wasn’t given probably wouldn’t have made much difference, what with the Germans being by far the better side overall.

While France’s football team is stumbling from bad to worse, the country’s borrowers are keeping the loan market buoyant.

We may only be a few matches in, but the German football team has already laid down the marker at the World Cup with its 4-0 drubbing of the Australians on Sunday night. No doubt the loan marketeers at BayernLB, Commerz, Deutsche, WestLB et al were celebrating in style.

It's June. And so it's time for the loan marketeers to start asking when the summer lull will kick in. In the last two years the answer has been a depressing: "Very soon" or "it's already begun”. This time the jury's still out. A couple of Russian deals have come to market only in the last week suggesting, some reckon, there's still at least another six weeks before the slowdown starts.

Emerging markets loan bankers have missed out on many things during the turmoil of the last three years. Deals have been rare. Exotic signing ceremonies: extinct.

Emerging markets loan bankers have missed out on many things during the turmoil of the last three years. Deals have been rare. Exotic signing ceremonies: extinct.

Loan marketeers must be relieved. Not only is Easter approaching but the first quarter, in many ways the most dreaded, is just about out of the way. So how has the market performed?