The US high-yield market has been in retreat for the past 18 months, some would say even longer, since the near-meltdown in the credit markets after Russia defaulted on its domestic debt in August 1998. Issuance so far this year is 49% down on 1999 levels, and it's been one of the longest periods of a Xat to negative performance in the asset class since the US market's revival in the early 1990s.
The only issuers that seem able to come to market are telecoms companies - in fact, nearly 70% of this year's deals are from that single sector.
Against this tough market backdrop, the award for best issuer goes to Williams Communications for its capital-raising outing last September. At the time Williams was one company working in two separate businesses, one being a giant energy company, the other an owner-operator of a Wbre-optic network. At the time the company needed to raise $5 billion, split roughly between the two businesses, but if the telecoms arm, a potential high-yield credit, issued any debt, the company's investment-grade rating, based on the energy business, might have been put in jeopardy.