Glossary

 

Accounting period: A calendar year ending 31 March

CDO: Collateralised Debt Obligation - a type of asset-backed security and structured credit product. CDOs are constructed from a portfolio of fixed-income assets.

CFM: Credit Fund Management

CLO: Collateralised Loan Obligation. CDOs primarily backed by leveraged bank loans.

EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation

FSA: Financial Services Authority

GP: The General Partner, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ICG plc

High yield: A form of debt that is rated below BBB-/Baa3 by any of the three major ratings agencies hence referred to as sub-investment grade. Most sub-investment grade debt pays a high cash yield and many of the issuers are high quality companies, albeit more geared than investment grade companies.

IC: Investment Committee

ICG plc: Intermediate Capital Group plc, the London Stock Exchange-listed entity within Intermediate Capital Group

ICG Intermediate Capital Group: The collective term for the group of companies incorporating ICG plc, ICML and affiliates.

ICAP: Intermediate Capital Asia Pacific

ICML: Intermediate Capital Managers Limited

IFRS: International Financial Reporting Standards - new accounting standards system that has taken over from GAP

IRR: Internal Rate of Return is an annualised effective compounded return rate which can be earned on the invested capital, i.e., the yield on the investment.

LBO: Leveraged Buyout

LP: Limited Partner

MBO: Management Buyout

Mezzanine: The tranche of the capital structure subordinated to the senior debt and senior to equity. Mezzanine is a flexible form of finance which can be structured as a subordinated loan with equity warrants or provided as preference shares or a convertible loan.  

Minority equity: A non controlling equity stake in a business 

NAV: Net Asset Value

PIK: Payment in Kind; also known as a roll-up. A PIK loan is a type of loan which typically does not provide for any cash flows from borrower to lender between the drawdown date and the maturity or refinancing date, not even interest or parts thereof (see mezzanine loan), thus making it an expensive, high-risk financing instrument. PIK is to be interpreted as interest accruing until maturity or refinancing.

Senior loan: A form of debt that is rated below BBB-/Baa3 by any of the three major ratings agencies hence referred to as sub-investment grade. Most sub-investment grade debt pays a high cash yield and many of the issuers are high quality companies, albeit more geared than investment grade companies.

Warrants: In finance, a warrant is a security that entitles the holder to buy stock of the company that issued it at a specified price, which is usually higher than the stock price at time of issue.