Is that light at the end of the tunnel or just another false dawn? Leveraged finance teams certainly hope the latest attempts to unblock the leveraged finance market, as institutions such as Citi and Deutsche Bank put together deals to sell off their leveraged loans portfolio, will start to get things moving.
But acquisition finance counsel, probably the City lawyers hardest hit by the prolonged turmoil in credit markets, are feeling too edgy to get hopeful just yet. After all, hopes of a revival emerged in October as debt was moved on two flagship deals – First Data and Alliance Boots N and credit spreads began to narrow. But it was not long before gloomy US economic news and a string of fresh bank writedowns took their toll, largely closing the market for £500m-plus mandates.
