Market Update: (Techni) Color Runs in High-Yield Market
Technicolor, the creative solutions company best known for its work in the movie industry, pulled a $330 million issue of single B2 rated secured notes on July 8 due to the ongoing turmoil in the junk bond market. According to Capital IQ, it is the seventh issuer to be sidelined by the market turmoil.
The company has increased the size of its institutional term loan offering to compensate for the junk bond offering’s demise, Capital IQ reported. The deal was upsized to $835 million, from $645 million, though the euro tranche was reduced to €175 million, from €250 million, according to reports. The refinancing was intended to reduce the company’s average interest expense, extend the maturity profile of its debt, “and gain greater operating flexibility,” according to the CEO.
The market remains inhospitable, despite a pre-holiday rally that saw the average secondary bid rise some 171 basis points over two days, according to S&P LCD. That was too late to staunch the nearly €700 million outflow from European high yield funds in the past two weeks, or the dramatic fall in junk market volume to $12.8 billion in June, from $43 billion in May.