Cain Brothers Newsletters: Industry Insights

“Industry Insights” is a bi-weekly email newsletter published by Cain Brothers, a division of KeyBanc Capital Markets. The newsletter features innovative and original perspectives about healthcare services, healthcare IT, and life sciences from our team of experienced investment bankers. Read the latest newsletter content below, and subscribe to start receiving the newsletter in your inbox.
Navigating the Healthcare Leveraged Finance Market in 2025
2024 was a year of marked improvement across the healthcare leveraged market for borrowers. The change was rapid as volume increased, spreads compressed, and documentation became more borrower friendly. These changes were driven by the robust fundraising market for both collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) and Private Credit, combined with a lack of new money M&A opportunities.
Moving into 2025, we expect the same themes to persist. CLO and Private Credit fundraising remains strong and those markets are ready to absorb an increase in M&A volume. Loan investors are generally optimistic about the prospects for M&A transactions as Private Equity firms look for opportunities to sell portfolio companies and deploy fresh capital. How the expected increase in M&A manifests in the Healthcare Leveraged Finance market will be dependent on how active investment-grade strategic buyers are and whether leveraged borrowers choose the Private Credit or broadly syndicated loan market (BSL).
The interplay between Private Credit and the BSL market has become more complicated over the past year, and despite record loan issuance across industries in the BSL market in 2024, Private Credit remained the preferred path of executing for healthcare borrowers. In 2H24, healthcare was the third most active sector for Private Credit investors behind only technology and financial institutions (FIG). There was ~$23 billion of healthcare volume for the period, which represented ~14% of total Private Credit volume. The average total leverage point was 4.9x, and average pricing was SOFR + 525, both improving from 1H24.
To begin 2025, we continue to see significant healthcare activity from the Private Credit market, most notably the two jumbo transactions for Clario (~$4 billion) and PCI Pharma (~$4.5 billion). Both companies had been repeat issuers in the BSL market and pivoted to Private Credit despite higher pricing. The refinancing for PCI Pharma included a reported $1 billion delayed draw term loan (DDTL) and elevated leverage point, which would put ratings pressure on the company. Overall, 56% of the companies that exited the BSL market for Private Credit in 2024 across industries had a B3 / B- rating, and another 27% fell into the Caa1/CCC+ or lower category.
While healthcare has been one of the most active sectors in Private Credit, it is one of the least active in the BSL market. Through January, BSL volume in healthcare only accounted for ~4% of the market volume, behind sectors generally viewed as more cyclical, such as Metals & Mining and Building Materials. This has been a consistent theme since the loan market troughed in mid-2023, but the trend should be reversing.
Fueled by the recent BSL repricing wave in 4Q24 and 1Q25, the average Single-B spread in the BSL market tightened to its lowest level since spreads started compressing in mid-2023. Large Cap Private Credit spreads across industries were 190 bps wider than the January Single-B average in the BSL market. This is the widest premium for Private Credit since January 2024. Private Credit firms generally are trying to hold the SOFR + 500 price point on new issuance, albeit unsuccessfully. At the same time, performing B2 and B3 credits are pricing well into the 300s in the BSL market. In a higher-for-longer interest rate environment, it is becoming harder for healthcare borrowers to ignore the potential savings from the BSL market. Any borrower with more than $400 million in funded debt should thoughtfully consider the benefits of the BSL market, given the current market conditions.
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