Quarterly Insights

The new universal proxy card (“UPC”) rules took effect last year, making the 2023 proxy season the first in which both company and dissident nominees were listed on the same ballot, allowing shareholders to choose among the different candidates in a contested election.

Chief Market Strategist David Zervos says the most recent FOMC meeting, and resulting Fed commentary, suggests that the risk of overtightening is in balance with the risk of being too accommodative.

Fewer activist hedge funds have recently used ESG themes as a wedge to extract concessions from target companies given the challenge of aligning a fund’s investment horizon with what could be a much longer timeline for ESG focused themes.

There is a burgeoning trend of multinational corporations (“MNC”) actively restructuring their China businesses through any number of divestitures and / or carve-outs to realign their balance sheets and maximize shareholder value.

After two years of limited IPO activity, we are cautiously optimistic about 2024. 

Issuers should take advantage of strong technicals and robust investor demand to pursue a variety of opportunistic transactions including refinancings, repricings, and dividend deals.

Companies that require new capital to refinance upcoming debt maturities, fund ongoing business, and/or fund incremental growth should consider raising “hybrid” capital in the form of structured/preferred equity as an alternative to raising secured debt.

Companies in need of new capital that are evaluating a Double Dip transaction should consider whether structuring the Double Dip as a “Pari Plus” financing is a viable alternative.

he Global Gas and LNG markets will start normalizing after 2024 with loose market conditions likely starting in 2026 and persisting until the end of the decade.

David Zervos is skeptical the Fed will be able to quickly declare victory over inflation and expects that a solid economic outlook should translate to a more restrictive Fed, for a longer duration.

It is common for highly levered sponsor-backed companies with liquidity needs and/or upcoming maturities to engage in liability management exercises, which often includes creating a new priming tranche of secured debt (an “Uptier”) or transferring assets out of the secured collateral package (a “Drop Down”).

With a mix of economic and market headwinds prevailing against M&A activity in 2022 and 2023, financial sponsors’ exits have been expectedly muted. As such, many sponsors have resorted to fundamental buy and build strategies to create value over a longer time period.