A funny thing happened in the debt market this week. A $3.2billion loan deal once chastised as “the worst ever” in terms ofinvestor protections drew US$9 billion worth of orders, allowing itto be super-sized by almost a third.

The loan was part of a $10 billion leveraged buyout (LBO)financing package including bonds for Johnson ControlsInternational Plc car battery unit Power Solutions. It surged frominitial pricing of 99 to 100.25 in its first day oftrading—indicating extra appetite from investors beyond theoversized order book.

“The upsizing of the deal meant there were fewer bonds to sell,and they experienced their own feeding frenzy,” said CanaccordGenuity strategist Brian Reynolds. “Johnson Controls intends to usemost of the proceeds of the transaction to buy back stock. Theoverwhelming success of this deal makes it likely that there willbe more such financial engineering ahead.”