B. Riley, QVC price; Qwest’s $25-par notes mixed; Wells Fargo, Energy Transfer down

By James McCandless

San Antonio, Sept. 6 – The preferred primary space saw increased activity as the secondary market continued a downward trend.

B. Riley Financial, Inc. priced $87 million of $25-par five-year senior notes at par with a coupon of 6.875% on Thursday.

QVC, Inc. sold $225 million of $25-par senior secured notes due 2067 with a coupon of 6.375%.

Qwest Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of CenturyLink, Inc., saw its $25-par notes end mixed in secondary trading.

Wells Fargo & Co.’s 6.625% series R fixed-to-floating rate non-cumulative perpetual class A preferred stock declined.

Energy Transfer Partners, LP’s 7.375% series C fixed-to-floating rate cumulative redeemable perpetual units also fell.

B. Riley prices

B. Riley priced $87 million of $25-par five-year senior notes at par with a coupon of 6.875% on Thursday.

The deal was announced Thursday morning at an initial size of $50 million and came in at the low end of talk for a coupon 6.875% to 7%.

There is a $13.05 million greenshoe.

B. Riley FBR Inc., Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. and Incapital LLC are the joint bookrunners.

QVC taps market

Also late Thursday, QVC said it sold $225 million of $25-par senior secured notes due 2067 with a coupon of 6.375%.

The deal was announced Thursday morning.

There is a $33.75 million greenshoe.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, RBC Capital Markets, LLC, UBS Securities LLC and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC are the joint bookrunners.

Qwest mixed

In secondary trading, Qwest’s $25-par notes were mixed. The notes have been heavily traded since Aug. 20, when the company issued a redemption notice for $1.34 billion in total of its 7.5% notes due 2051, two series of 7% notes due 2052 and 7.25% debentures due 2035.

Qwest’s existing 6.75% notes due 2057 (NYSE: CTDD) were down 3 cents to close at $24.80 on volume of about 525,000 notes.

The 6.5% notes due 2056 (NYSE: CTBB) were up 3 cents to close at $23.97 on volume of about 305,000 notes.

The 6.125% notes due 2053 (NYSE: CTY) were up 20 cents to close at $23.66 on volume of about 229,000 notes.

On Wednesday, the 6.75% notes gained 23 cents, the 6.5% notes jumped up 40 cents and the 6.125% notes added 53 cents.

Wells Fargo preferreds dip

Wells Fargo’s series R fixed-to-floating rate non-cumulative perpetual class A preferred stock edged lower.

The preferreds (NYSE: WFCPrR) were down 1 cent to close at $27.47 with about 311,000 shares trading.

Energy Transfer falls

Energy Transfer’s 7.375% series C fixed-to-floating rate perpetual preferreds also declined in secondary activity.

The preferreds (NYSE: ETPPrC) were down 4 cents to close at $25.37 on volume of about 224,000 shares.

Indexes down

The Wells Fargo Hybrid & Preferred Securities Financial index was down 0.15% at market close after dropping 0.24% in early trading.

The iShares US Preferred Stock ETF was down 4 cents to $37.29.

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