Regulatory firestorm rocks leveraged finance

In attempting to curb the excesses of the leveraged lending market, regulators might end up pushing it into the arms of the very private equity sponsors they are trying to rein in.

The leveraged finance market enjoyed a record year worldwide in 2013. As the number-one destination in the search for yield it attracted seemingly insatiable investor demand and corporates only too willing to take advantage of financing terms very much in their favour.

According to Morgan Stanley’s ‘Leveraged finance outlook’ for 2014, cov-lite loans as a percentage of total lending had hit 55% by the third quarter of 2013 – a big jump from 25% in 2007 and 7.4%

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