U.S. syndicated loan issuance broke $2.5 trillion in 2017 for the first time, beating 2013’s $2.14 trillion record, Thomson Reuters LPC reports. The surge in new lending was driven by refinancing volume of $1.7 trillion. Refinancings made up 68% of U.S. syndicated loan issuance and surpassed 2013’s $1.55 trillion.
Leveraged lending was up 60% in 2017 to $1.4 trillion thanks to $933 billion in leveraged refis, which doubled in 2017. New money lending ranked as the second busiest at $790 billion, following 2007’s $839 billion. Of this, $537 billion backed M&A financings, and U.S. investment grade M&A financings surpassed $200 billion in 2017.
Analysts expressed optimism about the M&A market going into 2018.
“In terms of deal flow, I was pretty pessimistic about the outlook for 2018 a couple months ago but now with more announcements happening late in the quarter I am becoming optimistic,” one underwriter told Reuters. “There’s been a late year surge in M&A activity and we are going into 2018 with deals in the pipeline.”
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