Is This the Bleakest It’s Ever Been?

September was not a healthy month for private placements, and October proved even bleaker as not even a single traditional placement approached the market.

A statement like this from a prominent private placements banker has become common:

“There’s no way to make a transaction. We’re trying to get people back in the ball game, and we are telling issuers to bide their time, to take a window of opportunity when it becomes available.”

Financial markets are not always about the good. They are also about the bad, and the ugly. The 22nd Annual Private Placements Industry Forum is the independent platform for leading market executives to network and to strategize successful methodologies for the industry.

What makes an industry?

In short, a market is its people, and a market’s behavior is really the behavior of its people.

A tiny bit of denial has given way to acceptance. The recession mentality has taken hold and is being priced into the markets. Spreads are wide. Pricing is chaotic. Issuances are down.

Investors, bankers, issuers and ratings agencies are forecasting tougher times ahead.

The private placements industry must now look to the future.

On the horizon: The 22nd Annual Private Placements Industry Forum. It arrives January 21-23, 2009 in Boca Raton, Florida.

Benefits:

• Find out what investors are holding in their portfolio
• Engage in that conversation that will encourage new issuers, new dollars placed, and new deals to market
• Discuss credits and the factors that have created this “credit tsunami” that has had repercussions throughout the world

New Addition!
We have added one more session to the forum. With infrastructure needs rising in the North American market, new sponsor, Stonebridge Financial will present opportunities for private placement investment in Ontario’s infrastructure projects.

We look forward to seeing you in Boca Raton in January.

Best,
Douglas Crets
Director – Private Placements Industry Forum
IIR USA
New York, New York
dcrets@iirusa.com
+1 646 616 7627