Confidence appears to be returning slowly to the European leveraged debt markets, which finance buyout deals, with the largest successful debt syndication since the start of the year completing this week, and new data suggesting investor appetite for the securities is improving.

The weighted average bid for leveraged loans has improved 6.55% since the end of last year, according to S&P/LSTA US Leveraged Loan 100 index. The index measures the mark-to-market price of the 100 largest leveraged loans. S&P said the index had made a "strong start to the year" with a year to date 9.4% total return.