Investment banks including Goldman Sachs Group, Citigroup and Barclays are among a number of traditional lenders that are looking to take back leveraged finance deals lost to private credit lenders during the market volatility of recent years, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The report cites unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter as revealing that, with interest rate cuts on the horizon and leveraged loan markets calming, bankers in both Europe and the US are speaking with buyout firms about the ‘lost’ private credit loans.
According to Bloomberg’s sources, banks are actively pitching to refinance the €850m ($924m) unitranche that backed KKR & Co’s buyout of French insurance broker April Group, as well as the €500m unitranche backing EQT’s buyout of calibration services firm Trescal.
The buyouts of Irca, an Italian manufacturer of ingredients and base food products, and Neopharmed Gentili, an Italian pharmaceutical company, are also deals potentially of interest to the banks who have a window of opportunity, as private credit unitranche loans typically allow companies to refinance around 12-18 months after a deal is first priced without a steep charge.
