Distressed bonds trade thin as grace periods to end, coupons near due; Intelsat debt firms

By Stephanie N. Rotondo

Seattle, March 14 – It was a “kind of a sleepy day” in the distressed debt market on Monday, a trader said.

“There was a scarce amount of distressed [issues] trading,” he added, noting that Anadarko Petroleum Corp. made up the bulk of high-yield trading.

For its part, Anadarko priced a three-part offering of senior notes during the session. Leading up to pricing, investors were jockeying around in the older issues.

“It didn’t seem like anything was all that active,” another trader commented. “Maybe everybody is tired from losing that hour of sleep (from Daylight Saving Time).”

However, there could be another explanation, he conceded. Tuesday is the 15th of March, a day when several companies – a fair chunk of which are in the oil and gas space – will see their grace periods expire. Other companies will have coupons due.

“It could be interesting,” the trader said of the coming session, speculating that the market could see a string of bankruptcy filings or missed coupons.

As such, investors could be sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see what Tuesday will bring.

Intelsat SA bonds were ticking up in Monday trading, according to market sources.

“Those levels crept up a little bit,” a trader said.

He said the shorter maturities, such as the 6¾% notes due 2018, gained “close to 5 points,” ending in the mid-70s.

“The others are probably up about a point,” he said.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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