RBS, International Flavors, New York Life price; Vodafone eyes deal; deal volume thins

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Sept. 24 – High-grade issuers priced more than $4 billion of bonds on Monday.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc sold $1.75 billion of fixed-to-floating-rate senior notes due Jan. 27, 2030.

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. sold $1.5 billion of senior notes in three tranches on the tight side of guidance following a roadshow that ended Friday.

Also, New York Life Global Funding priced $800 million of FA-backed two-year floating-rate notes.

In other activity during the session, Vodafone Group plc kicked off a two-day round of fixed-income investor calls for a multiple currency notes offering.

Lighter investment-grade deal volume is expected this week after issuers priced more than $34 billion of bonds last week, sources report.

About $20 billion to $25 billion of high-grade issuance is predicted for the week, with some expecting as little as about $15 billion of supply, according to syndicate sources.

Issuance likely will be front-loaded over the week with the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting and press conference scheduled for Wednesday, according to market sources.

Otherwise, activity was somewhat quiet over the day with a focus on political news and several financial markets, including in Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea, closed for a public holiday.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 31 index softened more than 1 basis point to close at a spread of 63 bps.

RBS sells notes

Royal Bank of Scotland Group priced $1.75 billion of fixed-to-floating-rate senior notes due Jan. 27, 2030 on Monday at par to yield 5.076%, according to a market source and an FWP filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The notes (Baa2/BBB-/BBB+) priced with a Treasuries plus 200 bps spread.

The issue was initially talked to price with a spread in the Treasuries plus 210 bps area.

The fixed rate will convert to a floating rate of Libor plus 190.5 bps on the optional redemption date of Jan. 27, 2029.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, NatWest Markets Securities Inc. and UBS Securities LLC were the bookrunners.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group is a banking and financial services company based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

International Flavors prices

International Flavors & Fragrances (Baa3/BBB/) priced a $1.5 billion three-tranche offering of notes on the tight side of guidance Monday, according to a market source and an FWP filing with the SEC.

A $300 million offering of 3.4% two-year notes priced with a spread of Treasuries plus 60 bps, or 99.968 to yield 3.417%.

The company sold $400 million of 4.45% 10-year notes at 99.912 to yield 4.461% and a 138 bps spread over Treasuries.

A final $800 million tranche of 5% 30-year bonds priced at a spread of 183 bps over Treasuries. The notes were sold at 99.278 to yield 5.047%.

Bookrunners were Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas Securities Corp., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Citizens Capital Markets, Inc., ING Financial Markets LLC, MUFG, U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc., Wells Fargo Securities, LLC and HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.

The New York City-based company produces flavors and fragrances for use in products including cosmetics, detergents, household goods, foods and beverages.

New York Life in primary

New York Life Global Funding priced $800 million of FA-backed floating-rate notes due Oct. 1, 2020 (Aaa/AA+/AAA) at Libor plus 16 bps on Monday, according to a market source.

The notes were initially talked to price in the Libor plus low 20 bps area.

BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Securities and Mizuho Securities USA LLC were the lead managers.

New York Life Global is a unit of New York-based mutual insurance company New York Life Insurance Co.

Vodafone readies deal

Vodafone Group (Baa1/BBB+/BBB+) is holding fixed-income investor calls through Tuesday for a Regulation S multiple currency offering of hybrid notes (expected Baa3/BBB-/BBB-), according to a market source.

The investor calls began on Monday for the deal, which includes U.S. dollar-denominated notes, euro-denominated notes and sterling-denominated notes.

BofA Merrill Lynch is the global coordinator.

Bookrunners on the dollar-denominated deal are BofA Merrill Lynch, HSBC Securities, J.P. Morgan Securities and Standard Chartered Bank.

Vodaphone is a multinational telecommunications company based in London.

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