Morning Commentary: Chefs’ Warehouse edges up; Fluidigm on tap; Medicines off highs

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, Nov. 20 – Chefs’ Warehouse Inc.’s newly priced 1.875% convertibles traded up by about 0.5 point on both an outright and swap basis on Wednesday after the specialty food products distributor priced $130 million of the five-year paper at the cheap end of coupon talk and the midpoint of initial conversion premium talk.

The notes “opened up with the stock still trading right around the close,” a New York-based market source said.

Meanwhile, Fluidigm Corp. announced plans to price $45 million of five-year convertible senior notes, plus a $5 million greenshoe, which were talked to yield 5% with an initial conversion premium of 25%.

The South San Francisco, Calif.-based maker of integrated microfluidic circuit systems plans to use proceeds of the Rule 144A deal to repurchase about $50 million of its existing 2.75% convertibles due 2034.

Back in established issues, Medicines Co.’s three convertible notes traded off their high marks notched on Tuesday amid speculation that several buyers were interested in acquiring the company, including swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG.

The Medicines 2.5% notes due 2022 pulled back to about 207 from 210 to 211 on Tuesday, when they had shot up from about 160.

The Medicines 2.75% notes due 2023 traded at about 147, which was down from 149 to 151 on Tuesday, but still significantly higher than a level around 130 previously.

Medicines’ common shares were also off about 2% on Wednesday, following a 27% surge initially on Tuesday, before settling up 20% to $70.21.

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