TXU Tests Debt Market

If you thought the debt market would have trouble digesting the First Data deal, wait till it gets a plateful of TXU (TXU).

A person close to the deal says banks next week will launch the sale of loans to finance the $32 billion buyout of TXU, a big Texas utility. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG Capital are buying TXU in a deal underwritten by banks led by Citigroup. The underwriters will be looking to capitalize on the momentum started by the First Data deal.

The question is whether the market has enough of an appetite to scarf down another big helping of this stuff.

Investors have been heartened by last month's sale of $9.4 billion worth of debt backing the leveraged buyout of First Data. The deal was the first mega-buyout funded in the debt markets since this summer's credit crunch, and it eased fears that financing shortfalls would wash out a slate of huge deals.

Indeed, the First Data underwriters seemed to orchestrate the impossible. They ended up selling nearly twice as much debt as they originally planned, without having to resort to the cheap leverage they were initially considering dangling to entice buyers.

The question now is whether the success of the First Data deal will doom future megadeals to failure. The First Data underwriters succeeded in part by reaching beyond the typical buyers of risky debt to a new audience, while holding prices at respectable levels. But without lowering prices or drawing in the regular buyers of this sort of paper, the banks may find there's not enough demand to fund the huge TXU deal.

To watch Liz Rappaport's video take of this column, click here.