European leveraged loans will reach record volume in 2004

In Standard & PoorÂ’s (S&P) European Structured Finance Report Q2 2004, the ratings agency outlines how large telecom deals and LBO loans have led to such a substantial increase in loan volume that the European market will register the highest volume ever recorded in 2004. Leveraged loan volume in the first half of 2004 amounted to EUR 35.4bn in Europe, up more than a third on the EUR 24.4bn recorded in the first half of 2003 and the highest ever registered since S&P began tracking the data in 1999.

The figure recorded so far this year is rapidly approaching the EUR 48.1bn of leveraged loans issued throughout the twelve-month period of 2003. The report commented that leveraged loan volume for the second quarter of 2004 totalled EUR 20.6bn, outstripping the EUR 14.8bn registered in Q1, ranking as the third highest quarter recorded since the telecom quarters in Q1 and Q2 2001 of EUR 25.7bn and EUR 25.6bn respectively. The market has been fuelled by LBO loan activity in the first six months of 2004. LBO volume alone has reached EUR 23.9bn, up from the EUR 14.3bn registered in the first half of 2003 and the EUR 29.6bn listed for the whole of 2003.

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