Press Releases

Record number of delegates at LMA annual conference

A record number of 900 delegates attended the LMA's 8th annual conference last Thursday at The QEII Conference Centre in Westminster. The conference continues to be the flagship event for the syndicated loan market in EMEA, providing delegates with the ideal opportunity to discuss the key trends in, and the challenges facing the loan market and what can be done to meet those challenges.

The theme of the conference was "LMA: supporting your team". As the authoritative voice of the syndicated loan market in EMEA, the LMA continues to support the industry through establishing market practice, educating the market and removing barriers to entry for new participants. The fact that LMA membership has for the first time this year exceeded 600 organisations clearly demonstrates that members value the support the Association provides.

The programme, as well as covering the primary and secondary loan markets, explored opportunities in the developing markets, the state of the commercial real estate debt market, and the growing role of funds in European financings.

As usual the audience was given the opportunity to vote on questions related to the market and 57% of respondents believe that volumes in the EMEA private debt market will grow by at least 10% over the next 12 months.

Further voting results from the day are summarised below:

• 36% of respondents believe that volumes in the EMEA syndicated loan market will grow by at least 10% over the next 12 months, whereas 55% believe they will remain rather unchanged.
• 35% of respondents believe Corporate M&A will be the best business opportunity next year, as opposed to 34% believing Refinancings.
• 49% of respondents anticipate that lending activity will increase in the developing markets over the coming 12 months, with 67% of respondents believing that the key factor driving their institution's lending to this region being "supporting investments by existing clients".
• 82% of respondents believe that regulatory changes over the past 5 years have significantly or materially impacted their business.
• 53% of respondents believe "The English Scheme" will be the most popular mechanism for restructuring indebtedness in 5 years' time.