Leveraged Loan Sprint Takes Issuance to Highest Since 2017

Companies taking advantage of lower financing costs to win better terms on existing debt or to push out maturities have borrowed the most from the US leveraged loan market in seven years.

At least $866 billion of leveraged loans have priced so far this year, trailing just the $980 billion of transactions done for all of 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 2013. While riskier transactions have hit the market recently, a record $608 billion — or 70% — of loan issuance this year comes from companies lowering margins on debt through repricing.

An additional 21% ...