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Grant Catton

Private Market Notebook: Week of Oct. 19th

October 23, 2009 - *New issuance activity has been steadily increasing in the private placement market over the past few weeks. Many sources attribute the quickened pace of issuance to the fact that investors are scrambling to do deals as the year winds to a close. “Many [buyside shops] are still under-invested in privates, and we’re getting toward the end of the year,” said one private placement agent. “Nobody wants to explain to their boss why they have money they…

This Ain’t 2006…Fortunately it Ain’t 2008, Either…

September 25, 2009 - This week I asked a private placement agent whether he thought the market had opened up as expected after Labor Day. He replied with a pithy remark: “This ain’t 2006,” he said. Right now there are deals coming to market, and deals getting priced, and the market does seem to have opened up since mid-August. We have a nice mix of foreign issuers, like Grifols, Vitol, and Murray Goulburn, as well as the kinds of issuers that…

Private Market Notes...Monday, July 20

July 20, 2009 - Private Market Notes: Monday, July 20, 2009 JPMorgan’s deals for Southern Montana Electric and Herdez are still in the market, sources confirmed. Southern Montana, an electric cooperative, is looking for $150 million in funds, while Herdez, a Mexico-based food company, is seeking $50 million. Both deals have been in the market since mid- to late-June. …

Will PP market get some of the ‘Korean bond boom’ or has the ship sailed?

June 16, 2009 - Has the private placement market missed the boat on Korea? Most people in our market remember this past winter when a number of South Korean companies were looking at issuing private placements. Among those companies were Korea Expressway Corp., SK Energy Co. Ltd., and financial institutions Korea Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of Korea were also thought likely candidates. …

Private Market Notebook...

June 3, 2009 - May was a good month in the U.S. private placement market, and seems to have met and exceeded most people’s expectations for issuance volume...

Earnings Watch: El Paso Corp. & El Paso Pipeline

May 8, 2009 - Both El Paso Corp. (EPC) and El Paso Pipeline Partners (EPP) reported 1Q09 earnings today, EPC is the parent of several placement issuers including Southern LNG, and EPP itself is also a private placement issuer. EPC reported a net loss of $969 million for the quarter, due to a non-cash charge related to the profitability of proven reserves. Though that may sound pretty bad, if the non-cash charge is excluded, the company would have posted…

Slow patch could give way to a more active month of May...

April 24, 2009 - The private placement market has slowed down a bit over the past couple of weeks, after starting-off the year at a pretty fast clip...

2008 League Tables show the same agents at the top of a smaller heap…

February 17, 2009 - The 2008 private placement league tables hit the wires last week and, to no one’s surprise, Banc of America Securities (now Bank of America – Merrill Lynch) was tops again...

Getting Down To Brass Tacks...

January 30, 2009 - With the holidays long gone and the annual conference wrapped-up, the U.S. private placement market was finally free to get down to business last week.

Private Market Plays All-Too-Familiar 'Waiting Game'

October 10, 2008 - It was another quiet week in the U.S. private placement market, as price uncertainty kept issuer's on the sidelines. As of Thursday afternoon, not a single deal had priced, and not a single new one had launched. Of course, there are a lot of good reasons for this, most notably the $700 billion U.S. government bail-out package which has been bouncing back and forth between the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate for more…

Private Market Runs Hot…For Now, at Least

March 5, 2008 - There are currently no less than eight placements circulating in the market, some of which launched last week, others that launched earlier and are still in the market. That represents a significant increase in activity compared to most of the past two months. But as volatile as the overall market has been this year, no one knows how long this level of activity will continue...

Mid-Winter Thaw?

February 11, 2008 - Last week was the first full week back from the private placement conference in Boca Raton, Fla., and the market seemed to open up a bit. At least two deals priced, and as of Friday there were at least four live private placements circulating...

Wall Street Goes Blue

February 11, 2008 - There's an interesting little article in today's Financial Times that says in 2007 Wall Street (the securities industry) donated more money to Democratic presidential candidates than to Republicans...