The high-yield leveraged bond and loan market is now valued at $4+ trillion in North America, Europe, and emerging markets, experiencing significant growth.

To succeed in issuing, evaluating, and investing in high-yield debt, financial professionals need specialized credit and bond analysis skills.

This fully revised and updated edition of A Pragmatist’s Guide to Leveraged Finance offers a comprehensive, practical, and expert tutorial and reference covering all aspects of modern leveraged finance analysis.

Veteran professional Bob Kricheff explains why conventional analysis is insufficient for leveraged instruments, clearly defines the challenges faced by sellers and buyers, and provides a step-by-step guide to deriving essential data for pricing and decision-making.

Using practical examples, sample documents, Excel worksheets, and graphs, Kricheff covers yields, spreads, total return, ratio analysis of liquidity and asset value, business trend analysis, modeling, scenarios, potential interest rate impacts, evaluating leveraged finance covenants, assessing equity, investing on news and events, early-stage credit, bankruptcy analysis, and creating accurate credit snapshots.

This second edition includes new sections on fallen angels, environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment considerations, interaction with portfolio managers, CLOs, new issues, and data science.

A Pragmatist’s Guide to Leveraged Finance is an indispensable resource for investment, underwriting, money managers, consultants, accountants, advisors, and lawyers in leveraged finance. It also teaches valuable credit analysis skills applicable to higher-risk investments, including growth stocks.