Macquarie, AIB, Vereit price; high-grade inflows positive; CenterPoint, Comcast improve

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Oct. 4 – Primary action continued on Thursday with new deals in the high-grade bond market from Macquarie Group Ltd., AIB Group plc and Vereit Operating Partnership LP.

Macquarie Group sold $850 million of fixed-to-floating rate notes.

AIB Group tapped the primary market with a $750 million issue following a roadshow this week.

Vereit Operating Partnership priced $550 million of seven-year senior notes in an offering upsized by $50 million, according to a market source.

Supply has been heavy over the week with more than $42 billion of investment-grade issuance, including Comcast Corp.’s $27 billion 12-part offering of senior notes on Tuesday.

About $40 billion to $45 billion of new issue supply was expected by market sources for the week.

For the week ended Oct. 3, Lipper US Fund Flows reported inflows of $1.22 billion for corporate investment-grade funds, compared to inflows of $1.78 billion in the prior week.

Bonds were mixed in secondary trading, according to market sources.

CenterPoint Energy, Inc.’s $1.5 billion issue of fixed-rate senior notes (Baa1/BBB+/BBB) that priced in three parts on Wednesday improved about 4 basis points to 5 bps in the secondary market.

Comcast’s new notes traded about 3 bps to more than 10 bps tighter than issuance.

The company’s $4 billion of 4.15% notes due Oct. 15, 2028, which priced Tuesday at a Treasuries plus 110 bps spread, were quoted in the 104 bps area.

Comcast’s existing outstanding notes were flat to about 3 bps wider in secondary trading on Thursday.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 31 index closed steady at a spread of 59 bps.

Looking ahead, lighter market activity is expected in the upcoming week with the U.S. financial markets closed on Monday for the Columbus Day holiday and the Canadian markets shut for Canada’s annual Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Macquarie taps market

Macquarie Group priced $850 million of 5.033% fixed-to-floating rate notes due Jan. 15, 2030 (A3/BBB/A-) on Thursday at a spread of 185 bps over Treasuries, according to a market source.

Initial price talk on the notes was at Treasuries plus 190 bps.

The bonds will convert after the fixed-rate period to a floating rate of Libor plus 175 bps.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., HSBC Securities (USA) LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Macquarie Group and Wells Fargo Securities LLC were the bookrunners.

Macquarie Group is a Sydney, Australia-based financial services company.

AIB prices $750 million

AIB Group (Baa3/BB+/BBB-) priced a $750 million Rule 144A and Regulation S offering of 4.75% five-year notes on Thursday with a spread of 175 bps over Treasuries, according to a market source.

The notes were initially talked to price in the Treasuries plus 190 bps area.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC were the bookrunners.

AIB Group is a banking and financial services company based in Dublin.

Vereit in primary

Vereit Operating Partnership sold $550 million of 4.625% seven-year senior notes (Baa3/BBB-/BBB-) on Thursday at 99.328 to yield 4.738%, according to an FWP filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The notes priced with a spread of Treasuries plus 160 bps.

Wells Fargo, BMO Capital Markets Corp., JPMorgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, SMBC Nikko Securities America Inc., U.S. Bancorp Investments Inc., Barclays, Capital One Securities, Inc., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Morgan Stanley and Regions Securities LLC were the bookrunners.

The notes are guaranteed by Vereit, Inc.

Vereit is a Phoenix-based owner and manager of a portfolio of retail, restaurant, office and industrial real estate assets.

© 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.