ION Analytics Shelves $500 Million Loan Deal Amid Market Swings

(Bloomberg) -- ION Analytics, a unit of Andrea Pignataro’s ION Group, has pulled the plug on a $500 million leveraged loan deal it had been marketing to investors since late July, in a sign of persisting jitters in credit markets.

UBS Group AG, the bank managing the transaction, told investors on Wednesday that the transaction was postponed due to market volatility, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly.

Through the deal, Ion was seeking to slash interest costs on an existing term loan, extend its maturity and amend some of its terms, Bloomberg previously reported. Commitments were due on Tuesday.

The company had been discussing with investors resetting the interest rate on the loan at a spread of 3.5 to 3.75 percentage points over the Secured Overnight Financing Rate.

A UBS spokesperson declined to comment, while ION did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deal is the fourth to be postponed this week in the US leveraged loan market, as investor concerns over the state of the US economy dampened a summer boom for debt issuance.

That change in tone was obvious on Monday, when SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Inc. shelved its planned refinancing of a $1.55 billion loan and SBA Communications Corp. postponed the repricing of $2.3 billion of debt. On Tuesday, a $3.65 billion package for Focus Financial Partners was also delayed.

Still, the market has rebounded from its Monday low, with the price of the Morningstar LSTA US Leveraged Loan Index climbing back above 96 cents on the dollar on Wednesday.

ION’s businesses include financial services firms like Dealogic, Fidessa Trading and Acuris, the owner of financial news platform Mergermarket. Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, competes with ION in providing financial software and data.

--With assistance from Gowri Gurumurthy, Giulia Morpurgo and Sonia Sirletti.