A representative for Citizens declined to comment.
Talks about potential acquisitions are only just starting to pick up. Citigroup’s McAuley is having one or two discussions a week -- up from about one or two a month in the early days of the pandemic -- and the pace is accelerating.
But there’s always a lag between when deals are finalized and new debt offerings materalize, said Christopher Miller, director of capital markets at Neuberger Berman. “A lot of these financings could be early 2021 before we see them hit the high-yield market.”
The huge amounts of cash that sponsors are sitting on could help get things going again, especially now that most people have gotten used to working from home and private equity firms have a better handle on how companies might perform during the pandemic. And the buyer base is there, at least for now.
“Investors are starting to be able to differentiate between winners and losers and place bets in terms of how companies are going to come out the other side of this,” said Ben Burton, head of U.S. leveraged finance syndicate at Barclays Plc.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.