PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Randolph L. Hood TI - Investment-Grade Private Placement Loan Spreads AID - 10.3905/jfi.1999.319225 DP - 1999 Dec 31 TA - The Journal of Fixed Income PG - 19--34 VI - 9 IP - 3 4099 - https://pm-research.com/content/9/3/19.short 4100 - https://pm-research.com/content/9/3/19.full AB - The private placement of securities by insurance companies represents a large but relatively unexplored category of investing. The author examines a sample of insurance company investment-grade-fixed-income private placements as reported to the American Council of Life Insurance for 1995 through 1998. The $97 billion in investments is similar to the public investment grade fixed-income market in terms of spread, but differs in a few special respects. Private spreads appear to track public spreads, but with a slight lag, perhaps because of institutional factors or pricing conventions. The spreads on investment -grade private placements are wider than those available in the public market. The wider spread is apparently due in part to extra monitoring costs and perhaps illiquidity.