First Financial prices notes amid summer slowdown; Xerox paper stronger; Hershey mixed

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, Aug. 20 – First Financial Bancorp gave the investment-grade primary market its only signs of activity on Thursday during another weaker session for the market.

The Cincinnati-based bank sold a $120 million offering of 5.125% 10-year subordinated notes at par with a spread of 303.4 basis points over Treasuries.

Thursday’s lone deal pushes the week’s total supply to $7.3 billion, falling short of what was predicted to be around $10 billion of new issuance.

Additionally, August has seen roughly $54 billion of paper come to market so far, following the staggering $155.34 billion of new investment-grade issues priced in July.

This summer slowdown comes ahead of what is predicted to be a frenzied month of issuance for September, with more than $100 billion of supply forecasted.

Credit spreads remained weak on the day after opening 2 bps wider. The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade index headed out at the widest range of the year at a spread of 81 bps.

In the secondary market, Xerox Corp.’s 3.5% notes due 2020 brought on Monday traded more than 2 points better than issuance.

Hershey Co.’s notes (A1/A) that priced on Tuesday were mixed in secondary trading.

In other trading, AT&T Inc.’s 3.4% notes due 2025 improved over the day.

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