A Pragmatist's Guide to Leveraged Finance: Credit Analysis for Bonds and Bank Debt

The First Practical Guide to Credit Analysis for Today’s $3,500,000,000,000+ High-Yield Leveraged Bond and Loan Markets

The high-yield, leveraged bond and loan market now exceeds $2.3 trillion in North America, €650 billion in Europe, and another $600 billion in emerging markets—and it’s growing fast. This market combines aspects of conventional fixed income markets, the event-driven volatility typically associated with equities, and structural features present nowhere else. To succeed in this market, you need credit analysis skills and insights specifically designed for it. Now, for the first time, there’s a complete practical guide to performing this analysis.

 

Credit Suisse high-yield specialist Robert S. Kricheff focuses on how financial professionals actually prepare and use leveraged finance credit analysis, offering examples addressing diverse scenarios and a wide spectrum of credit risks, from companies near-investment-grade to firms in bankruptcy. He illuminates credit analysis as a dynamic process, shows how to evaluate both financial liquidity and asset protection, demonstrates how to use the field’s key tools, and explains how to apply the insights that make analysis an art, not just a science.

 

• Projecting liquidity

Will sufficient cash be generated to pay interest and principal?

• Evaluating assets

Can the investor be protected by the value of underlying assets?

• Applying financial ratios and metrics

How can credit quality be analyzed and investment options compared?

• Evaluating management and ownership

Can the company leaders deliver what they promise?

• Investing on breaking news

How can you profit from the junk bond market’s volatility?

Robert S. Kricheff, Managing Director and Head of the Americas High Yield Sector Strategy for Credit Suisse, has more than 20 years of experience in credit analysis. He has followed industries including media, cable, satellite, telecom, gaming, entertainment, healthcare, and energy; worked with emerging market corporates; and performed both strategy and portfolio analysis. His work has covered investment vehicles including bonds, converts, loans, preferred stocks, and credit default swaps. He holds a BA from New York University in Economics, and an MS c from the University of London SOAS in Financial Economics.