Insights

New York – April 1, 2021: Crowell & Moring and Kibbe & Orbe have joined forces effective today to provide expanded service offerings to clients in the financial services industry.  Twenty-four lawyers from the storied financial law firm are now part of Crowell & Moring’s New York, London, and Washington, D.C. offices, including Jennifer Grady, managing partner and chair of the firm’s executive committee, who will co-chair Crowell & Moring’s Corporate practice; three founding partners, Jonathan Kibbe, William Orbe, and Michael D. Mann, and the managing partner of the London office, Andrew M. Martin.

In the ever-evolving landscape of English law credit agreements in the European leveraged loan market, the dynamics of lending have undergone significant transformations in the last few years. One issue that has gained prominence is the increase in limits on the ability of lenders to transfer their loans and the associated restrictions imposed on potential new lenders. European syndicated loan agreements have historically included a standardised and expected set of transfer restrictions applicable to prospective lenders, reflective of the market guidance and templates issued by the Loan Market Association (“LMA”). Certainty of terms and the capability of an existing lender to sell out of a loan position have been the hallmark (and expectation) of the LMA loan market. However, trends in the drafting of credit agreements have contained a concerning increase in limitations on loan liquidity. As a result, many lenders are finding it difficult to sell their distressed loans. This article explores these trends, as well as their implications on the secondary loan trading market.

In today’s global secondary loan market, negotiating trade terms is not usually a protracted process, but rather an efficient set of communications, where the parties reach agreement on only the most material trade terms and trust that market documentation frameworks and trading conventions will supply the remaining terms. Whether a trade will be documented as a “par” trade or a “distressed” trade, however, is one of the more important terms that is generally addressed in the earliest communications between the trading parties.