Jefferies confirmed today that it will hold a Global Coronavirus Relief Charity Day tomorrow, Wednesday, May 27, 2020. The firm and its staff will contribute to global charities and relief efforts to assist those suffering from the devastation caused by the Coronavirus global pandemic and will offer investors around the world the opportunity to join these efforts by trading with Jefferies. Jefferies will dedicate this entire effort to their late CFO Peg Broadbent, who was a victim of this terrible disease.

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Backed into a corner by the coronavirus pandemic, Texas billionaire Tilman Fertitta is rolling the dice in the leveraged-loan market.Fertitta’s empire includes Golden Nugget casinos and restaurants under the Landry’s Inc. umbrella like Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Morton’s The Steakhouse and Rainforest Cafe. Needless to say, the economic shutdown across America has wreaked havoc on all of those businesses. In a gambit to stockpile extra cash, Landry’s this week is dangling an unprecedented all-in yield of at least 16% to entice investors to buy into a new $250 million loan. It would be the first successful leveraged-loan deal in almost a month, assuming it draws enough commitments on Thursday.It already looks as if the offering arranged by Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will make it past the finish line. Bloomberg News’s Jeannine Amodeo and Davide Scigliuzzo reported Tuesday that order books are already double the size of the proposed loan. That checks out: As I noted last week when Carnival Corp. initially floated bonds yielding close to 13%, bankers involved in these sales have little reason to propose an interest rate that won’t clear the market. Indeed, despite being in a line of business directly harmed by the spreading coronavirus and in desperate need of cash, Carnival priced its bonds 100 basis points lower than the initial level.The Landry’s deal appears to be benefiting from a combination of the highest spread ever on a first-lien loan not tied to bankruptcy and renewed risk appetite broadly. For as risky as Carnival might seem, it at least technically had investment-grade ratings, and its bonds had the unusual benefit of being secured by a first-priority claim on its assets. By contrast, Moody’s Investors Service cut Golden Nugget’s “corporate family rating” on March 24 to B3 from B2, six steps below investment grade. That seems warranted given the company’s struggles. Here’s Bloomberg’s Scigliuzzo and Amodeo on how Landry’s has fared so far during the coronavirus outbreak:  The pandemic has brought the travel and leisure industry to a near standstill, leaving Fertitta’s businesses shuttered and burning cash while tens of thousands of his employees have been furloughed.The company has already drawn $300 million of existing credit lines in full and Fertitta is injecting $50 million of his own cash into the business, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the details are confidential....Fertitta sees the new loan as an expensive insurance policy in the event that none of these businesses can reopen before the end of the year, the same person said.In other words, this leveraged loan is painful, but necessary, for a company that’s directly in the crosshairs of this virus-induced economic slowdown.It won’t be the last such business to try to wade into the riskiest parts of the debt markets looking for financing. Following in Carnival’s footsteps, Wynn Resorts Ltd., which had drawn down almost all of its $850 million revolving credit line, plans to issue $350 million of junk bonds, in what would be the first “unsecured” deal since the high-yield market sprung back to life last week. Viking Cruises is also considering a new $500 million junk bond while its ships are docked.For both investors and borrowers alike, the most crucial question might be whether the rift persists between high-yield debt and leveraged loans. Junk bond funds experienced a record inflow of $7.09 billion for the week ended April 1, according to Refinitiv Lipper data, indicating that the widest yield spreads since the last recession were enough to lure buyers. By contrast, loan funds continue to face withdrawals, with investors pulling another $528 million during the same period. Aside from a few weeks here and there, loan funds have been hemorrhaging cash nonstop since late 2018, when risk assets tumbled and forced the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates.Given that backdrop, some investors are skeptical that the Landry’s offering indicates the leveraged-loan market is on the brink of a comeback. A $690 million deal for Mallinckrodt was scrapped last month after attempting to launch, at the time marking the 18th loan deal to be pulled or postponed in 2020. Leveraged loans are trading at about 83 cents on the dollar, based on the S&P/LSTA Leveraged Loan Index. That’s up from as little as 76 cents but still a ways away from the 97 cents at the start of the year.An unidentified syndication manager told Reuters flat out that it “will not be a harbinger of the loan market reopening. With secondary levels still, on average, in the mid-80s, accounts will likely continue to focus their attention on buying names that they know at historically attractive levels.”For Fertitta, whose net worth dropped by about a third at one point a couple of weeks ago, having his deal slip through the cracks at any price would be a win. He shares that sentiment with the leveraged-loan market as a whole. “We are trying to survive,” he told Bloomberg’s Scigliuzzo. “I have enough liquidity to ride this out. I can’t go forever but I can go for a few months.”This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Brian Chappatta is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering debt markets. He previously covered bonds for Bloomberg News. He is also a CFA charterholder.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

'It is a long race and never a straight path, so people shouldn't be all consumed that the coronavirus detour will ruin their lives forever.'

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Jefferies Group LLC today announced that Aneta Markowska has joined the firm as a Managing Director and Chief Financial Economist. She will be responsible for analyzing and predicting trends within the government debt and broader Fixed Income markets globally, including interpreting actions of the U.S. Federal Reserve. In her role, she will work closely with the firm’s other economists and market strategists globally, including Thomas Simons, U.S. Money Market Economist.

The coronavirus pandemic struck at the heart of Wall Street on Sunday morning with the passing of Peg Broadbent.

Investment firm Jefferies has propped up an otherwise barren US leveraged loan market in April, bringing US$1.275bn worth of new supply at enticing terms to lure a yield-hungry investor base still weighing the impacts of the coronavirus. “When Jefferies has a lot in the market while nothing else is happening, we know there’s a sense for an opportunity,” said one managing director at a bank. “They work with a lot of companies in sectors that are hurting from the virus like restaurants or retail, so Jefferies can come in and structure a deal with high coupons.”

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF) today announced with profound sadness that Peg Broadbent, the CFO of Jefferies Group LLC, has passed away from coronavirus complications. The entire Jefferies family mourns Peg’s loss. On behalf of our Board of Directors, management team and all our global employees, we extend our deepest sympathies to Peg’s family.

Jefferies announced that it is holding its Global Coronavirus Relief Charity Day today. The firm and its staff will contribute to global charities and relief efforts to assist those suffering from the devastation caused by the Coronavirus global pandemic and will offer investors around the world the opportunity to join these efforts by trading with Jefferies. Jefferies will dedicate this entire effort to their late CFO Peg Broadbent, who was a victim of this terrible disease.

Anyone researching Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF) might want to consider the historical volatility of the...

By Yasin Ebrahim

(Bloomberg) -- Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is spinning out its systematic hedge fund Quantport, with some staff leaving the firm.Jefferies may retain an interest in the new venture, and the shakeup was in the works before the pandemic, according to a person familiar with the matter.The New York-based fund, which had regulatory assets under management of $3.7 billion as of January, started as part of Jefferies’ proprietary trading desk, before overseeing external money from 2010. Led by Vlad Portnoy, it trades market-neutral strategies in equities and futures.The news was reported earlier by eFinancial Careers.The past few years have seen a number of systematic funds shut as growing competition and muted market swings eroded gains from their strategies. This year’s historic volatility has also been challenging, as the fallout from the coronavirus upended the price patterns underpinning many quant models.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

M Science, the pioneer in data-driven research and analytics, has launched an interactive dashboard to track consumer shopping trends impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Building on the firm’s legacy of curating actionable insights from alternative datasets, the dashboard will provide a view into how and where Americans are spending, what they are spending on, and what new spending behaviors might mean for the national economy and critical sectors.

(Bloomberg) -- Telecom masts that enable the next generation of wireless communication were set on fire in the U.K. in recent days, apparently by people motivated by a theory that the technology helps spread the coronavirus. Investors are taking note.“Most will laugh at this scientifically unproven claim, but we should not underestimate public worry about potentially adverse health impacts of 5G due to radiation, and thus a possible drag on the 5G progress in democratic countries,” analysts led by Edison Lee at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. said in a note on Sunday.While there’s no evidence to support the idea that 5G airwaves contribute to Covid-19’s spread, the conspiracy is being shared widely on social media. Mast fires were reported in Belfast, Liverpool and Birmingham, according to local media. A video of a telecom tower on fire was circulated on a Birmingham community web page, and Facebook removed a group which encouraged users to share footage of equipment being destroyed, the Guardian reported Friday.At least 20 masts have been attacked in the last few days, according to trade body Mobile U.K.“It’s diverting resources from emergency services dealing with the pandemic, and from the industry ensuring the country remains connected” said Gareth Elliott, head of policy and spokesman for Mobile U.K. “It’s putting people’s lives at risk.”5G is being rolled out by all four U.K. mobile carriers: BT Group Plc, Vodafone Group Plc, Telefonica SA’s O2, and CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s Three U.K.The networks denounced the mast attacks in a joint statement on Sunday. Britain’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport tweeted that criminal acts inspired by “crackpot conspiracy theories circulating online” will “face the full force of the law.”Counter-terrorism police are investigating, according to Vodafone U.K. Chief Executive Officer Nick Jeffery.The government has set up special units to combat misinformation about the virus, and says it’s pressing social media companies “for further action to stem the spread of falsehoods and rumors which could cost lives.” Media regulator Ofcom last week sanctioned a small radio station for featuring a guest who claimed 5G caused the pandemic. Hollywood actor Woody Harrelson shared the theory on his Instagram account last week.Concerns about links between 5G and cancer were already slowing its roll-out in countries including Switzerland, Bloomberg Businessweek previously reported, despite a lack of scientific support for the claims. Last month the independent global health body, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, deemed 5G to be safe.“Public fear, even if not fact-based, can pressure governments to act if it is big enough,” the Jefferies analysts wrote. “With so many unknowns as to the nature of COVID-19, it is not surprising that people might believe any theories, no matter how baseless.”(Updates with number of attacks and wireless industry comment from fourth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

By Stephen Page As corporate boards work to navigate companies through this unprecedented time, directors can leverage digital governance solutions to optimize their communication as they respond to the virus and prepare for the proxy and AGM season. As businesses are actively responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate boards are working to navigate their companies […]

Jefferies chief market strategist David Zervos believes one area that the Federal Reserve has "left a bit high and dry" in its recent emergency moves is the residential mortgage market.

Dear Readers, CorpGov welcomes you to watch and listen to a replay of Thursday's Webinar: Best Corporate Governance Practices During the Coronavirus Crisis and Beyond, sponsored by Vinson & Elkins LLP. Please follow this link for the replay, which includes a presentation deck (note audio begins after 30 seconds): WEBINAR REPLAY LINK We discussed a range […]

To the annoyance of some shareholders, Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) shares are down a considerable 34% in the...

By Yasin Ebrahim