Bolstered by a troika of large, well-rated, corporate M&A loans – Dollar Tree ($6.2 billion), Valeant Pharmaceuticals, ($5.15 billion), and Ball Corp. ($3 billion revolver) – new-issue volume has risen in the first quarter, to $80.7 billion, including $53.9 billion of institutional tranches, from a three-year low of $66.6 billion/$43.4 billion over the prior three months.

Still, participants are not exactly breaking out the cigars and champagne. The primary market is off to a flat-footed start versus the liquidity-heavy/regulation-light first quarter of 2014, when arrangers placed $168 billion of new issues, including $129 billion of institutional facilities. In fact, 2015 is off to the slowest start for any year since 2010. – Steve Miller

This analysis is taken from a longer LCD News story, available to subscribers here, that details first-quarter leveraged loan activity in full.

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