Primary heats up with IBM, Northrop, GATX; bonds mixed, credit spreads firm; eBay soft

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, Feb. 3 – The investment-grade bond market hosted a flurry of activity on Tuesday, with International Business Machines Corp., GATX Corp., Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co., Northrop Grumman Corp., Japan Bank for International Cooperation, European Investment Bank and Erste Abwicklungsanstalt pricing bonds.

IBM brought to market $2 billion of three-year senior notes in fixed- and floating-rate tranches.

Northrop Grumman sold $600 million of 30-year bonds, and M&T Trust sold $1.5 billion of bank notes in two tranches.

GATX priced $650 million of notes in three parts, adding a 30-year tranche prior to the deal’s launch.

Meanwhile, Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Erste Abwicklungsanstalt were each in the market with $1 billion offerings, and EIB sold a $3 billion new issue.

The session also saw International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) and Kommunalbanken AS join the forward calendar.

The high-grade primary market has seen more than $19 billion of new issuance in the first two sessions of the week.

Bonds were mixed in secondary trading on Tuesday, while credit spreads tightened, sources said.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade index firmed 3 basis points to a spread of 66 bps.

In the secondary market, eBay Inc.’s 3.45% senior notes due 2024 were quoted 2 bps weaker over the session and nearly 40 bps wider since December.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.