First Niagara, Developers Diversified price deals, Hartford plans sale; banks trade firmer

By Andrea Heisinger

New York, March 16 - Developers Diversified Realty Corp. and First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. each priced upsized sales on an otherwise quiet Tuesday in the investment-grade market, where the focus was on a Federal Reserve Board meeting and other news out of Washington.

Both sales were priced about the time that an announcement came out of the meeting that key rates remained unchanged and near zero. This was an expected move by the Fed, but some were watching for cues about when a rate increase might take place.

Developers Diversified offered $300 million of split-rated seven-year notes. The amount was increased from $250 million.

First Niagara also increased the size of its deal to $300 million of 10-year notes from $250 million.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. announced plans to sell senior notes as part of an effort to repurchase preferred shares issued to the government as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. About $1.1 billion in bonds are to be sold, including some to pre-fund future note maturities.

Trading focused mostly on the financial sector - with firmness seen in banks - and outstanding bonds as there was little in the way of new deals in the secondary market.

Investor interest had dropped on Monday ahead of the Fed meeting, and remained down at the end of the day.

The Developers Diversified Realty bond was seen trading slightly up from where it had priced.

Overall volume was "about average" for the day after a low-activity start to the week in the investment-grade secondary.

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