Firms Move to Scoop Up Own Debt

By SERENA NG A number of corporations are buying back bonds on the cheap in the open market as the credit sector works its way out of crisis mode. They are taking advantage of depressed prices to save millions of dollars in interest and debt-repayment costs. In the recent round of second-quarter financial filings, companies including Beazer Homes USA Inc., Hexion Specialty Chemicals Inc., Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Tenet Healthcare Corp. disclosed they had purchased slugs of outstanding bonds and loans from investors at discounts to the debt's face, or par, value. Bankers said the trend could signal that corporate executives think the worst of the credit crisis is over and are feeling better about the economic outlook, because they are using cash to buy back debt instead of hoarding it. But the moves also reflect how companies and private-equity firms are coming to grips with the new reality. Companies with below-investment-grade credit ratings have roughly $1.4 trillion in debt coming due through 2014, according to Standard & Poor's data. With markets unlikely to allow them to easily refinance most of that debt, companies are doing whatever they can now to pay some of it down or buy extra time to repay. "The real issue for companies now is how they delever, and every little bit counts," says Judith Fishlow Minter, a managing partner at North Sea Partners LLC, a private investment bank in New York. While many companies are purchasing bonds through publicly announced tender offers, some are conducting buybacks without formal notification, buying the debt without driving prices higher. "No one wants to announce a bond or loan buyback until they have to, as that will move prices," said Tom Newberry, head of leveraged finance at Credit Suisse in New York. The open-market bond buybacks are one of several ways in which companies are reducing debt or buying time in the hope that the economy will recover. Others are getting lenders' consent to push out the maturity dates of loans. Many also are selling secured junk bonds to replace bank loans that impose strict financial-performance standards known as covenants. But while buybacks and bond tenders are helping companies shrink debt loads at the margin, the challenges ahead are immense. "You can rearrange the deck chairs all you want, but these are mostly short-term fixes," said Daniel Toscano, a former Wall Street banker. "At some point, something's got to give and someone in the food chain will lose money." Buying back debt cheaply also is advantageous because companies can record accounting gains, reflecting the difference between what they paid and the value of the bond on its books, boosting bottom lines. Most of the debt buybacks took place between March and August, a period in which average high-yield-bond prices rose from 59 cents to 85 cents for every dollar of debt. Leveraged loans issued by companies with speculative-grade ratings traded between 66 cents and 86 cents, according to Standard & Poor's Leveraged Commentary & Data. The run-up in prices will make it more expensive for companies to repurchase debt, but with many bonds still trading well below par value, firms still may find it a worthwhile move. In July, hospital operator Tenet Healthcare bought back $68 million in debt that matures between 2011 and 2031, spending $60 million in cash, the company disclosed this month. Biggs Porter, Tenet's chief financial officer, said the company ended the second quarter with a "strong cash balance" and undertook the buybacks to reduce total debt and annual interest expenses. The move was "opportunistic as it wasn't part of a broader plan, and relative to what we would earn on our cash in the bank, it made economic sense," Mr. Porter said. Chemicals producer Hexion, which is controlled by Apollo Management LP, spent $26 million in the first quarter buying back notes with a face value of $196 million, paying an average of 13 cents on the dollar. Between April and August, Hexion spent another $37 million purchasing $92 million in debt at an average of 40 cents on the dollar. While the buyback enabled Hexion to book a gain of $182 million, the company still has $3.5 billion in outstanding debt. An Apollo spokesman declined to comment. In the second quarter, Beazer spent $58 million buying back $115.5 million in bonds, paying an average of 50 cents for each dollar in debt. The bonds represented 8% of Beazer's debt. Effectively, the Atlanta company paid half of what it would have had to pay had it allowed the debt to mature on time. In its earnings conference call this month, Beazer Chief Financial Officer Allan Merrill said the purchases were "part of efforts to address our capital structure," and the company expects to take more steps to reduce debt. Beazer declined to elaborate. "I'd characterize this as the credit-repair phase," said Matt Eagan, high-yield portfolio manager at Loomis Sayles in Boston. Meanwhile, Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. paid $223 million to buy back $578 million in debt, mostly during February and April. The home builder in June tendered for some of its bonds. Units of casino operator Harrah's, which was taken private in 2008, paid an average of 48 cents on the dollar to purchase $788 million in debt during the second quarter, according to Harrah's filings. The company has taken other steps to reduce debt in recent months through tenders and bond-exchange offers. A Harrah's spokesman declined to comment. Write to Serena Ng at serena.ng@wsj.com