Banks are braced for losses on a £1bn bond and mortgage deal backing on-line UK playing firm 888’s takeover of rival William Hill’s operations exterior the US, marking the newest debt sale to go awry in risky markets.
Funding banks have incurred steep losses on a string of current debt gross sales backing riskier company acquisitions because the offers unravel within the face of rising rates of interest and more and more cautious traders.
In these offers, banks initially underwrite the debt after which promote it on to specialist funds, which means the underwriters can guide losses if traders demand greater yields than initially anticipated.
JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, the 2 banks main 888’s bond and mortgage deal, had been scheduled to wrap up the debt sale this week. However JPMorgan introduced on Friday that it might now be “delayed till mid subsequent week”.
The US funding financial institution cited a “delay” in finalising the documentation across the US greenback mortgage portion of the deal, together with the approaching July 4th vacation.
Nevertheless, bond and mortgage fund managers who had been approached to purchase the debt stated tepid demand had hit the sale, with traders not even tempted by double-digit yields. The banks started advertising the deal at a yield of round 10 per cent, however will now have to cost it even greater.
JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley declined to remark.
888 is shopping for William Hill’s operations exterior the US, which embrace 1,500 UK betting outlets and on-line operations in markets similar to Italy and Spain, from on line casino operator Caesars.
Rising inflation and the prospect of upper rate of interest rises have sapped traders’ urge for food for threat, with European high-yield bond indices dropping round 15 per cent this 12 months.
On high of the stresses in debt markets, the UK authorities’s overview into the 2005 Playing Act, which is anticipated to clamp down on downside playing, can be weighing on 888’s debt deal.
“It’s inconceivable to take a view on this credit score earlier than the federal government white paper is out,” stated one mortgage fund supervisor.
The UK authorities coverage doc, due inside days, will mark the most important shake-up of the business in 17 years. Tradition secretary Nadine Dorries is about to suggest a sequence of measures, together with a most stake of between £2 and £5 for on-line casinos, stricter checks on prospects’ earnings ranges and a ban on free bets and VIP packages for downside gamblers.
However the sector stays unsure over the small print, notably whether or not the federal government will go for more durable curbs, similar to a brand new levy on playing income to fund public well being initiatives. “There’ll be a good quantity of ache, we simply don’t know precisely the place it’s going to come back,” stated one playing business govt.
When banks wrestle to promote underwritten offers, they’ve to supply the debt to traders at a reduction to face worth, leaving them with a loss. JPMorgan started advertising 888’s deal at round 92-93 cents on the greenback, however fund managers anticipate it to finally shut at a fair steeper low cost.
The group of banks underwriting the deal — which additionally contains Mediobanca and Barclays — have already determined to carry round £760mn of 888’s debt on stability sheet, moderately than attempting to promote it to traders.
The playing deal is the newest leveraged buyout to trigger ache for funding banks, which underwrote debt packages earlier than a market downturn crimped demand for riskier debt.
A bunch of banks led by Goldman Sachs positioned a £1bn bond backing the takeover of UK grocery store Morrisons at a steep low cost in Might. These banks are nonetheless sitting on billions of kilos in unsold loans backing the deal, which they’re anticipated to incur additional losses on.
European high-yield company bond issuance has dropped strongly this 12 months in these tough situations, with Refinitiv knowledge displaying proceeds down 77 per cent in comparison with the primary half of 2021, when many firms rushed to lock in beneficial rates of interest in benign markets.
“It’s a kind of that in a great market would get executed, however want to come back with some concession,” stated one bond investor, whose group handed on 888’s deal. “In a nasty market, [it is] a lot tougher.”
