Pik – and choose carefully

Payment-in-kind (Pik) notes offer limited upside to bondholders – and if the issuer defaults, the holder of a Pik note loses everything. So why are these securities enjoying such a surge in popularity? Oliver Holtaway reports

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Payment-in-kind notes have become flavour of the month, making up roughly one-third of all European high-yield issuance so far this year. Irish packaging manufacturer Jefferson Smurfit, German chemicals firm Cognis, Italian aerospace company Avio, German media company Kabel Deutschland and UK lead producer Eco-Bat have all brought payment-in-kind (Pik) notes to market in 2005.

“It’s a big phenomenon,” says Bryant Edwards, partner at Latham & Watkins and chairman of the European High Yield

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