CAM High Yield Weekly Insights

Fund Flows & Issuance: According to Wells Fargo, flows week to date were $0.9 billion and year to date flows stand at $5.6 billion. New issuance for the week was $5.1 billion and year to date HY is at $36.6 billion.

(Business Wire) Mediacom Communications Completes New Term Loan

• The $1.37 billion proceeds from the financing transactions were used to repay all of Mediacom LLC’s previously outstanding indebtedness
• “We are very pleased with today’s completed transactions, which reduce MCCC’s interest expense to an all-time low, while extending the maturities of our debt arrangements,” stated Mark E. Stephan, MCCC’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “Mediacom’s quality reputation in the financial community fueled robust lender demand that allowed us to upsize and tighten the pricing on the institutional term loans. Our balance sheet has never been stronger, and with an industry-leading average cost of debt now below 4%, our ability to generate free cash flow has strengthened even further.”

(New York Times) Michael Flynn Resigns as National Security Adviser

• Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser, resigned after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States
• Mr. Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, said he had given “incomplete information” regarding a telephone call he had with the ambassador in late December about American sanctions against Russia, weeks before President Trump’s inauguration. Mr. Flynn previously had denied that he had any substantive conversations with Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak, and Mr. Pence repeated that claim in television interviews as recently as this month

(Bloomberg) Fed Chair Yellen Testifies to Congress

• Yellen’s comments lifted the odds for a rate hike at the March meeting four points to 34 percent. While futures traders still see less than 50 percent odds for three increases this year, President Donald Trump’s vow to pursue pro-growth policies could push the Fed to pick up the pace. Inflation data Tuesday from China to American showed accelerating price gains at factories, bolstering the case for tightening before a reading on U.S. consumer price data Wednesday.
• “Waiting too long to remove accommodation would be unwise, potentially requiring the FOMC to eventually raise rates rapidly, which could risk disrupting financial markets and pushing the economy into recession,” Yellen said

(PR Newswire) Huntsman Announces Financial Results

• Peter R. Huntsman, our President and CEO, commented: “At the beginning of 2016, we announced our intent to generate more than $350 million of free cash flow. We delivered a record $686 million of free cash flow in 2016, including $117 million during the fourth quarter. We used this cash, together with proceeds from the sale of our European surfactants business, to repay $560 million in debt, significantly strengthening our balance sheet.
• “We are also delivering on our commitment to separate the TiO2 business through the spin-off of Venator. We continue to make steady progress with the IRS to allow Huntsman to retain a 40% economic interest in Venator.”
• Post the financial report, Huntsman did receive a private letter ruling from the IRS allowing the company to retain a 40% economic interest in the tax-free spinoff of Venator Materials

(PR Newswire) Equinix Reports Full Year Results

• Revenues from continuing operations of $3,612 million, a 33% increase over the previous year; an organic and constant currency growth rate of greater than 14%
• Adjusted EBITDA of $1,657 million, a 46% adjusted EBITDA margin
• “2016 was a pivotal year for Equinix. We continued to capture the shift to the cloud, expand our global reach and scale, grow interconnection, and deliver record bookings and increasing shareholder returns. We are operating at the intersection of some of the greatest technology trends in our lifetime, and the digital transformation driven by cloud services is shifting compute, storage and networking to the edge, which plays into our dense ecosystems and global scale. We look forward to a busy 2017 as weintegrate our acquisitions, grow our global platform, enhance our portfolio of services and increase our reach and relevance to the cloud-enabled enterprise,” said Steve Smith, President and CEO.

(Globe Newswire) Avis Budget Group Reports Financial Results

• For the year, the Company reported revenue of $8.7 billion, an increase of 2% compared with 2015. The Company reported full-year Adjusted EBITDA of $838 million and free cash flow of $472 million in 2016
• “While our fourth quarter results reflect softer-than-expected volume and pricing, as well as currency movements having a $7 million adverse impact on Adjusted EBITDA compared to what we had anticipated, we are enthusiastic about our prospects for 2017 and beyond,” said Larry De Shon, Avis Budget Group Chief Executive Officer. “Our strategic initiatives are already beginning to deliver meaningful benefits, and we continue to expect that our efforts will drive substantial long-term margin growth.”