Stefan Isaacs

 



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1
Are Sovereign CDS Evil?
Following on from Jim's Sovereign CDS Q&A blog(see here) I came across thischart at zerohedge.com. Whilst I can't vouch for its accuracy, the chart shows that the actual net amount of outstanding sovereign CDS contracts, relative to outstanding ... 		26-Feb-2010
2
LBO’s and IPO’s: have European equity investors woken up?
Back in January at our Annual Investment Forum I focussed on the changing face of the European Leveraged Finance markets - those companies financed with significant levels of debt. My belief is that the current, somewhat forced reinvention, will ... 		17-Feb-2010
3
The Ultimate Carry Trade ?
Last week’s BWIC list (bids wanted in competition) from the Bank of England gave further evidence, if it was needed, that the demand for Sterling corporate bonds remains very strong. The table below, kindly provided by HSBC, shows the bonds that ... 		13-Jan-2010
4
High Yield Déjà Vu? Not Quite Yet
It’s been quite a year to date for leveraged finance. Improving economic data, increased risk appetite and a supply/demand imbalance has driven valuations starkly higher. At the time of writing, the Merrill Lynch European High Yield Index is up a ... 		03-Nov-2009
5
Car wash, talkin' about the car wash yeah
Having recently recovered from my amateur stunt man escapades I thought I’d pen a short note on the recent court sanctioned debt restructuring by IMO Carwash. Why do investors outside of IMO care ? Well, it’s the first time that the English ... 		20-Aug-2009
6
Stirrings in the European high yield primary market
We've talked about new issuance a few times recently on this blog (see Matthew's blog from December here and my more recent comment about the record issuance in Q1 here). But the focus has been firmly on issuance in the investment grade market, until now. ... 		29-May-2009
7
New issuance hits record levels
We commented in November that growing levels of new issuance suggested that there were cracks in the ice in credit markets. This trend has rapidly accelerated. In the first quarter of this year, there was over €115bn of new issuance from corporates, ... 		30-Apr-2009
8
Horrific European economic data released
Spain is already in deflation, and this morning it released some horrible unemployment numbers. Spanish unemployment soared to 17.4% in Q1, from 13.9% in Q4. This is the first time unemployment has risen above 17% since 1998, and is further evidence of ... 		24-Apr-2009
9
What is the European Central Bank waiting for?
The ECB cut rates from 1.5% to 1.25% last week, taking the main rate to the lowest level since the ECB took control of monetary policy in 1999. Markets had been expecting a rate cut to 1%, and rightly so. Everything seems to be deteriorating in Europe, ... 		07-Apr-2009
10
Finally - The Penny (or 'Cent') Drops
The European Central Bank cut its main re-financing rate last week by 50 basis points to 1.50%. It is continuing to ease monetary policy into uncharted waters. Jean Claude Trichet conceded that the ECB staff's projections for a recovery in 2009 were way ... 		10-Mar-2009