Bank loan market ‘fatigued’ but strong; Quikrete prices add-on; Vectra sets Monday meeting

By Paul A. Harris

Portland, Ore., April 29 – The bank loan market appeared fatigued on Friday, but still strong, according to a trader based on the East Coast.

Getting hold of paper remains difficult, the trader added.

Retail loan accounts continued to see outflows during the most recent week, sources said.

Dedicated loan funds saw $75 million of outflows in the week to Wednesday’s close, according to a report from Lipper-AMG.

However, the Thursday daily flows were positive, with the loan funds seeing $25 million of inflows on the day, a trader said.

Meanwhile the bank loan paper of Alere Inc. was down ½ point to 5/8 point on news of difficulties in the proposed merger of Alere with Abbot Laboratories, the trader said, spotting the Alere loan at 98 7/8 bid, 99 3/8 offered.

In the primary, Quikrete Cos. priced a fungible $168 million add-on, and Vectra Co. scheduled a bank meeting for a $450 million term loan.

Quikrete priced the add-on to its Libor plus 300 basis points first-lien covenant-light term loan due September 2020 at 99.75 on Friday.

The spread, which priced on top of spread talk, floats atop a 1% Libor floor.

The reoffer price came 25 bps rich to the 99.5 price talk.

Vectra scheduled a bank meeting at 1 p.m. ET on Monday for a $450 million first-lien term loan due Oct 28, 2021 (Ba3/B).

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