A handful of energy names moved up last week in line with the firming high-yield market and stabilization in the equity markets. Bankers cited Consol Energy, La Grange Energy, Reliant Energy and Allegheny Energy as beneficiaries.
Consol's "B" loan was trading at the 101-101 1/4 context, up from the 100 5/8-101 range. Meanwhile, Reliant's term loan was trading in the 99-99 1/2 context, up from the 98 3/4-99 1/4 range. Allegheny's first-lien piece was seen changing hands in the 100- 100 3/4 context. La Grange's $900 million "B" loan stabilized at the 100 5/8-100 7/8 level, where it started trading two weeks ago on the break.
Energy names appear to be recovering after Matlin Patterson Global Opportunities' acquisition of two merchant generating assets from Duke Energy brought prices downward last month (LMW, 5/17). A spokesman at Reliant said, "The one thing that could clearly improve our debt levels would be the announcement of the sale of our upstate [New York] assets." An Allegheny spokewoman could not provide comment and spokespeople for La Grange and Consol did not return calls.