Over the next five years, U.S. investment-grade companies have to refinance a record 1.6 trillion dollars of debt, the Financial Times reported on Jan. 3. Companies with junk ratings have even more ($1.87 trillion) to refinance over the same period.
“Converts are going to stay popular because we have a massive maturity wall that’s about to hit,” said Ken Wallach, co-head of global capital markets at law firm Simpson Thacher. “In 2020 and 2021, companies issued all this five-year paper in a much lower rate environment during the height of the pandemic.”
