Americas Leveraged Finance Weekly: Primary Market Rings In 2026 With Early Buyout Activity Amid Refinancing Wave

The primary market kicked off 2026 with a steady wave of repricings and new issuance in the first full week after the holiday slowdown. Both loan and bond issuance were strong. Octus covered 21 loan issuers that announced or priced $30.2 billion of loans. In addition, 10 high-yield issues came to market covering $8.7 billion of bonds. Although volumes were largely driven by deals refinancing existing debt, the presence of a few larger leveraged buyout and M&A financings signaled early momentum for new issuance this year.

Among notable new issuance this week, medical device manufacturer Hologic launched a dual-currency $7 billion equivalent term loan B to finance its take-private by Blackstone and TPG. Commitments on both the $5 billion and $2 billion euro-equivalent tranches were accelerated to Wednesday, Jan. 14, from Thursday, Jan. 15.

Hologic’s offering has been positively received this week by market participants who cited the strength of its business as a key reason for their participation. One leveraged loan investor said the deal is the first big sign this year of an anticipated M&A boom for buy-siders who are eager for new paper.

Another buyout in the market this week is Finastra treasury and capital markets’ dual currency $1.2 billion-equivalent leveraged loan financing its acquisition by Apax Partners. The offering has drawn mixed views from prospective investors, who note the carve-out risk and limited portfolio diversity as the main concerns, Octus reported. Commitments on the Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank-led financing are due Thursday, Jan. 15.

Meanwhile, Conga is preparing to launch a $1.2 billion leveraged loan package imminently, backing Thoma Bravo’s merger of the company with Pros Holdings’ business-to-business unit, Octus reported this week. The Deutsche Bank-led offering is expected to include a $890 million first lien extended loan and a $275 million non-extended loan.

Elsewhere, metal payment card manufacturer Composecure priced a $1.2 billion loan alongside $900 million of senior secured notes to refinance debt related to its merger with Husky Technologies. Final terms of the offering were amended several times, including upsizing the loan by $150 million and tightening price talk to SOFR+225 bps and 99.875 OID.

For more information on potential deal activity, see Octus’ Deal Origination Pipeline.

In the tables and summaries below we recorded $39 billion of loans and bonds that were either announced or priced in the latest week.

Issuance volume year to date for leveraged loans and high-yield bonds is below:

Issuance by Use of Proceeds, Ex-Repricings

Issuance by use of proceeds for both loans and bonds but excluding repricings is shown in the charts below. For year-over-year comparisons, Octus provides data for the last 13 months. Debt earmarked for leveraged buyouts and M&A has increased as a share of total loan issuance in September compared with the prior two months.

Pricing by Rating

Average spread and coupon for loans and bonds, respectively, by rating band are detailed in the charts below. Because of the limited activity of CCC rated issuance, only the months with issuance are shown.

Pricing by rating category is shown below:

Breakdown by Sector

Industrials, financials and energy led the way for new issue announcements across loans and bonds.

In the secondary market, Cornerstone Building Brands saw its 9.5% senior secured notes due 2029 trade off in recent months as lender sentiment toward the company and its sector declines, Octus reported this week. The notes traded down about 5 points over the holidays from 79 on Dec. 22, 2025, to 74 earlier this week, sources said.

Top daily loan decliners and risers can be found in Octus’ Credit Cloud. A search for the largest bond decliners is HERE.

Average high-yield bond spreads sit at 276 bps, according to ICE BofA data.

Moody’s Ratings and S&P Global Ratings downgraded the following companies this week:

• Saks Global Enterprises
• Upstream Rehabilitation
• RSA Security

Octus Covenants’ analyses of the documentation for new loan transactions can be found HERE.

Octus’ Private Company Analysis recent reports can be found HERE.

Octus’ Fundamentals Coverage Weekly Update highlights new-issuer coverage in Fundamentals for the syndicated credit universe, alongside transcripts for syndication calls.