Downsized Change Healthcare megadeal caps $5.7 billion week, bonds gain in heavy trading

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, Feb. 3 – The high-yield primary sphere was quieter Friday after two busy days – but still managed to put up a $1 billion deal.

Syndicate sources said that Change Healthcare Holdings LLC came to market with a downsized $1 billion offering of eight-year notes which priced at par.

Secondary traders said that when the San Francisco and Nashville-based health care information technology company’s new paper hit the aftermarket it moved solidly higher in heavy trading.

The day’s new U.S. dollar-denominated and fully junk-rated paper from domestic or industrialized-country borrowers brought this week’s tally of new bonds up to the $5.7 billion mark in 10 tranches, according to data compiled by Prospect News, up from roughly $5 billion which priced in 14 tranches the week before.

Traders meantime saw Thursday’s new bonds from greeting-card maker American Greetings Corp. continuing to firm smartly in active dealings.

But they said another one of Thursday’s issues, from Dutch aluminum products company Constellium NV, remained essentially tethered to its issue price, though on busy volume.

Overall, though, they said that Junkbondland had a firm tone on the day.

Statistical market performance measures were higher across the board for a third consecutive session on Friday. They had turned higher on Wednesday and stayed there on Thursday after being lower for one session and mixed for three sessions before that.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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