Quiet primary session closes out $5.87 billion week; new issues busy, add to small gains

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, May 20 – The high yield dollar-denominated primary market quieted down on Friday, syndicated sources said, after several busy sessions during the week saw large offerings.

No new dollar-denominated, fully junk-rated paper from domestic or industrialized-country issuers priced during the session, unlike Thursday when $1.1 billion of such paper came to market in two tranches.

The only offering that priced during the day came out of Europe, where bookmaker William Hill plc priced £350 million of new seven-year notes.

The lack of any new dollar paper during the session left the week’s new-issuance tally where it was on Thursday, with $5.869 billion having come to market in nine tranches, according to data compiled by Prospect News – down from the $8.869 billion that got done in 13 tranches during the week ended last Friday, May13.

The week’s new issuance raised the year-to-date total of new junk paper to $81.425 billion in 109 tranches – although that was down by some 46.4% from the new-deal pace seen a year ago, when $151.957 billion had priced in 237 tranches by this point on the calendar.

Among this week’s newly priced issues, traders said there once again was busy activity in both tranches of NXP BV’s two-part offering, as well as in Thursday’s new issues from Tempur Sealy International, Inc. and Universal Health Services, Inc.

The new paper was generally firm, mostly adding on to the small aftermarket gains those issues have notched since their respective pricings.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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