Help: LCD Credit Analysis overview

Overview

If you’re transitioning from LCD and used to sourcing debt data through LCDComps, or if you’ve been using PitchBook and want to explore our expanded debt coverage, this guide will help you get started.

You’ll learn about our coverage and how to access debt data, news, and research in PitchBook to evaluate the credit market, identify lending opportunities, find comparable deals, and benchmark loan performance.

This article also explains how LCD’s credit resources are now integrated into PitchBook.

Private credit data coverage

We track fundraising trends across these private credit strategies:

• Direct lending
• Distressed
• Credit special situations
• Mezzanine
• Bridge financing
• Real estate debt
• Infrastructure debt
• Venture debt
• Multi-strategy

• Our most detailed deal data covers direct lending from 2019 onward.
• Coverage for other private credit strategies (such as distressed, credit special situations, real estate, infrastructure, and multi-strategy) is limited.

Our private credit data is sourced through both LCD’s and PitchBook’s data, using a mix of public and private sources, including:

• Press releases and news outlets
• BDC filings
• Direct outreach to lenders and companies
• League table submissions from top lenders

These sources help us provide the most complete coverage possible, given the private nature of the market. Sometimes, we add extra details to deals based on surveys and league table submissions.

Credit News

The Credit News tab is the home for LCD’s credit news in PitchBook. Updated throughout the day as news articles are published, the tab features a user-friendly search bar, column filters, quick links to in-depth deal data, and easy access to the profiles of issuers, lenders, and sponsors.

To find this tab, click Credit News in the LCD Credit Analysis section of the sidebar.

Searching and filtering news

These tools on the Credit News tab make it easy to find the news you need:

1. Search Bar – Enter keywords, company names, or even the titles of specific articles.
2. Table Columns – Hover over the top of each table column to see additional filtering options. Click the funnel icon to filter or the arrow icon to sort. Filter and sort on news topic, asset class, lender, sponsor, issuer, and more.

News alerts

From anywhere on the Credit News tab, you’ll see the Alerts button in the top right-hand corner. This option allows you to create and manage alerts for LCD Credit News articles, choosing topics you care about and how often you want to receive updates. Once set up, you are emailed the articles that meet your criteria to your email address linked to PitchBook.

To set up alerts, select Alerts, then Set Alerts to open the alerts window with the following options:

1. Alert Name – Name your alert. This name will be displayed in the alert email delivered to your inbox.
2. Frequency – Choose how often you want to receive news article alerts.
3. Entity – Add the names of any companies of interest to receive news articles featuring them as they are published.
4. Publisher – Filter to show articles by publisher name. There are three publisher options available to you in the News Center.
   
   1. LCD – Credit news in PitchBook is written by our LCD team. For more information on how LCD’s experienced credit journalists research and publish news articles, check out the Credit News production process article. LCD is selected by default when accessing Alerts from the Credit News tab.
   2. MT Newswires – A premium news vendor providing coverage of public equity news.
   3. 3rd Party news – We collect and display news from other reputable publishers.
   4. PitchBook – Private market news published by PitchBook.
5. Asset Class – Choose to receive articles based on your specific market area of interest.
6. Topic – Use this option to set alerts for specific topics covered in the news article.
7. Region – Set which articles to receive based on their primary geographic focus.

Forward calendars and upcoming credit deals

Keep an eye on upcoming loan and bond deals with the loan and bond forward calendars. These calendars segment the news into shadow, announced, and in-market deals for loans; and expected, announced, and priced deals for bonds.

To reach the forward calendars, click Credit News in the PitchBook sidebar and then select the Forward Loans Calendar or Forward Bonds Calendar subtabs.

Credit Research

The Credit Research tab is the home for LCD’s credit research in PitchBook. Within this tab, you can quickly identify the reports and pipeline files you want using a straightforward search box, quick filters, a report table for browsing, and easy access to the full profiles of companies or lenders mentioned in reports.

To find this tab, click on Credit Research in the LCD Credit Analysis section of the sidebar.

Searching and filtering research

These tools on the Credit Research tab make it easy to locate a report or pipeline file covering the topics you’re looking for:

1. Search Bar – Enter keywords related to your topic, enter the title of a report, or search for “pipeline” for pipeline files.
2. Quick Filters – Use the Quick Filters to narrow the list of reports. The options focus on credit asset class, purpose of the debt, region, mentioned companies, and more.
3. Table Columns – Filter and sort your results by hovering over the top of each column in the table. Click the funnel icon to filter or the arrow icon to sort.

Report titles

Some report names have been adjusted in the move from LCD to PitchBook to fit better within the PitchBook Platform’s broad universe of research.

For example, some updated names are:

• Quarterly PowerPoint is now US Leveraged Loan Quarterly Trend Lines
• M&A Technicals Report, or M&A Stats, is now US Loan Market M&A Trend Lines
• European Monthly Review is now European Leveraged Finance Report
• LCD Weekly Wrap, or LoanStats Weekly Wrap, is now US Credit Markets Weekly Wrap
• Recovery Study Report, or LossStats, is now the Global Recovery Study

In many cases, searching by a report’s former name from LCDComps will also help surface reports with the new name. For example, if you’re looking for the Default Rates/Downgrades/Distress Ratios file, entering the words “downgrade/distress” in the search box will surface the US Leveraged Loan Default Rates report, along with other reports that relate to downgrades and distressed loans.

You can also use the search bar to look for a specific keyword from the report you need. This method may help you find reports on discounted spreads, volume reports, rates, ratios, spreads, returns, recovery, wraps, index-related reports, and more.

Research alerts

Research alerts allow you to receive an email when a report is published within a specific geography, asset class, and report type. To sign up for research alerts:

1. Click Subscribe in the top right corner of the Credit Research tab.
2. Use the + symbol to the left of the asset class names to expand the categories. Select the checkboxes for the report types that you need.
3. Click Save.
4. If you need to manage your subscription in the future, return to this menu or click Alerts & Subscriptions in the My PitchBook section of the PitchBook sidebar.

Statistics and charts by asset class

The asset class dashboards provide tables and charts of statistics and trends alongside reports, giving a complex view into this market segment. The tables and charts can be used to decide the most productive topics to explore in further research. They give you a broad view of the asset class performance over time in areas such as trends, yields, volume, default rate, calendar, repayments, leverage, or prices, with the specific charts available varying by asset class. Reach these dashboards from the ribbon above the reports table.

Loan & Bond Indexes

Morningstar Indexes contain a live look at the price of a composite set of loans as they move through the market. They can be used for tracking and benchmarking the prices of loans similar to those in your investment field. In PitchBook, you can find index returns, spreads, commentary, par amount outstanding, and more.

To get started with index-related information needs, choose one of these options:

• Click the Leveraged Loan Indexes Analysis Dashboard subtab in the Credit Research tab to access reports and statistics for the Morningstar LSTA Leveraged Loan Index (LLI) and European Leveraged Loan Index (ELLI).
• Click Loan & Bond Indexes in the Credit Analysis section of the PitchBook sidebar to access index components and index levels, shown below.

Index reports and return statistics

Reports related to the Morningstar LSTA Leveraged Loan Index (LLI) and European Leveraged Loan Index (ELLI) appear in the Credit Research tab, alongside reports about other credit topics, and on the Leveraged Loans Indexes Analysis Dashboard. You can find common index-related reports in PitchBook under the following names:

• US Leveraged Loan Index Daily Spreads
• US Leveraged Loan Index Monthly Wrap
• European Leveraged Loan Index Factsheet
• US Leveraged Loan Index Factsheet

Index level comparisons

Using our Index Comparisons tool, compare returns among a collection of over 300 Morningstar Indexes. Add up to 10 indexes at a time to compare data points related to bids, total return, or market value returns. Type index names into the Indexes search box to easily choose the indexes you wish to view on the chart.

Index components

In the Index Components tool, find market return, par amount outstanding, and total return for segments of the US Leveraged Loan Index, Europe Leveraged Loan Index, Global Leveraged Loan Index, and the Leveraged Loan 100. View the individual issuers and facility details for deals that make up these indexes under the Display Map within the Components table.

Credit data

LCD’s credit data has been integrated alongside PitchBook’s extensive data on deals, debts, and the organizations involved. This section will show you where to find actionable data in context.

Loan and bond pipelines

LCD’s loan and bond pipelines highlight debts with a particular feature, such as second lien loans or cov-lite loans. If you’re accustomed to downloading these daily pipeline files, PitchBook’s Debt & Lenders screener will be an invaluable tool for you. The Debt & Lenders screener allows you to surface debts, issuers, lenders, and sponsors using a wide variety of debt characteristics.

Some pipelines have even been integrated as one-click prebuilt searches. Since PitchBook’s tracking scope covers a wider set of deals than LCD’s tracking scope, you will find additional debts and deals in the Debt & Lenders screener that were not available in LCDComps.

Business development companies (BDCs)

Business Development Company (BDC) portfolio holdings are a critical piece of information about the credit market, particularly for participants in direct lending. BDCs are tracked in PitchBook as a fund type, with a service provider as the fund’s manager. However, depending on the business activities of the BDC and its business status, the BDC may also be tracked as an investor and as a public company.

You can find BDC portfolio holdings in the following places:

• The full universe of BDCs is located on the BDC tab in Credit Research, pictured below. This tool contains 10 years of quarterly reported holdings for about 150 BDCs, with over 500,000 holdings records represented.

• All BDCs managed by a specific fund manager will appear on the manager’s Service Provider profile, in the Funds tab. To find the Service Provider profile, search the fund manager’s name in the search bar at the top of the PitchBook Platform.

Collateralized loan obligations (CLOs)

Find Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) lifecycle data and collateral pool guidelines across PitchBook. Individual CLOs are tracked in PitchBook as a fund type, with an investor as the fund’s manager. You can also explore our CLO Analysis Dashboard for trends in this market.

You can find CLO data in the following places:

• Data about the CLO fund will appear on its CLO Fund profile, pictured below. To find the CLO’s profile, search for its name in the search bar at the top of the PitchBook Platform.
• The CLO Details search results tab, which you can find after completing an Investors & Funds screener.
• All CLOs managed by a specific fund manager will appear on the manager’s Investor profile in the Funds tab. To find the Investor profile, search the fund manager’s name in the search bar at the top of the PitchBook Platform.

Deal sheets, company deal history, and lender data

Deal sheets for debt deals are no longer separated from a company’s financing history. Find them integrated directly into the record of the company’s financing history alongside its other debt deals, equity deals, and exit deals. Analyze a company’s financial position with the other information available on its profile, which is described in our articles on private company profiles and public company profiles. You can access this deal history in several ways, including the following:

1. If you want more information about the deals and parties in news stories, you can click on the business names in the Issuer, Lender, or Sponsor columns in the Credit News tab to visit the profiles of those organizations, which contain our full array of data related to that business. Select the value in the Deal Type column to access the deal sheet with the deal’s full details, including not only debt data but also broader deal information, investors, advisors, initial deal preferences, and the company’s stock information and cap table history, when applicable. Along with the deal sheet, you’ll find the company’s full deal history to better assess its financial position.

2. If you know are looking for a specific issuer, use the General Search bar in PitchBook’s top ribbon to search for a company by name, PBId, or LCD Issuer ID. This will direct you to the company’s profile, which includes its deal history, general information, financial data, investors, filings, and more. Add additional context to your research with clinical trial data, patents, and other market research tools.

3. If you are looking for a specific lender, use the General Search bar in PitchBook’s top ribbon to search for the lender by name, PBId, or LCD Lender ID. This will direct you to the lender’s profile, which includes its general information, services provided, preferences, filings, and more.

4. If you know some characteristics of the debts you want to find, use the Debt & Lenders screener or the column filters in Debts search results to pinpoint debts matching your criteria. To start, click on Debts in the Data section of the heading. After you run your screener, you can add or remove the visible columns for your search results by clicking Edit Table and then Edit Columns. Use the funnel icon on any column within the search results to further filter or sort the list of debts.

Credit in PitchBook Mobile App

Find deal information, credit news, and credit research on the go with the PitchBook Mobile App. Our mobile app is designed to give you access to valuable and timely information throughout the day, wherever you are.

From the app’s navigation menu or homepage, tab the option you need:

1. Search in the navigation menu allows you to build a screener for issuers and deals.

2. News in the navigation menu gives access to reports and news. Once you’re on the News tab, you’ll see credit news in the LCD Credit News section.

   

   3. Research Reports on the homepage directs you to all reports. Once on the Research Reports page, tap LCD Credit in the top navigation bar to see credit reports only.

   

Helpful links

• Credit Essentials – This Credit Essentials course provided by PitchBook Pioneer will guide you through leveraging the PitchBook Platform for all of your credit needs with our Credit Dashboard, Debt & Lenders Screener, and other tools to enhance existing workflows.