(Bloomberg) -- Bankers who arrange debt sales for companies with less than stellar credit ratings are preparing to ramp up new offerings after the Federal Reserve threw an unprecedented lifeline to the market for risky borrowers.
The Fed’s plan to directly buy debt issued by companies recently downgraded to junk -- alongside some bond ETFs and top-rated tranches of collateralized loan obligations -- provided a much-needed dose of confidence to Wall Street and triggered a flurry of phone calls to drum up business. Junk-debt offerings may start to be unleashed as soon as the long weekend is over.
“If it weren’t for the holiday, I would have started doing deals tomorrow,” said Richard Zogheb, global head of debt capital markets at Citigroup Inc. “You are absolutely going to see a pick-up in leveraged issuance over the next couple of weeks.”
Bankers are talking to large companies that had been waiting for the market to improve before launching new deals, according to people familiar with the matter. They’re also talking to private equity firms about options for their portfolio companies. The possibility of raising debt would offer an alternative to bank financing or cash from equity investors to help them through business shutdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
Around a dozen companies have sold junk bonds or leveraged loans in the past couple of weeks as markets started to thaw. But they’ve often had to pay double-digit interest rates to do so.
Read more: Paying up to 14% rates, new debt deals are distressed from start
For some issuers the Fed action could mean that they’ll simply have to pay less to borrow. Secondary prices rallied across bonds and loans Thursday on confidence that the Fed was willing to do more to support riskier companies.
For more challenged borrowers, including those owned by private equity, the Fed’s action could mean the difference between being able to tap the market and not being able to borrow at all.
“We have been talking to companies in industries that are having a rough time with Covid-19 and that were already levered,” said Zogheb. “Those folks could very well have access now.”
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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