PS Business Parks frees; Ventas active in trading on soft liquidity; Goldman paper gains

By Andrea Heisinger

New York, March 6 - No new offerings of preferred stock were announced Wednesday after two sales from Public Storage and PS Business Parks Inc. earlier in the week.

"We opened strong, but it's been fading a bit," a trader said at midday. "Liquidity's OK."

By early afternoon, a source said that trading was "very quiet" and that there "wasn't much at all going on."

"We had all these small deals with no selling groups," the source said. "Things should pick up next week."

At the close the market was seen "mostly mixed, maybe up a penny after being up a fraction of a penny," the trader said. There's a rumor of a new sale for Thursday, but nothing solid has been announced, the trader added.

A source said that the Public Storage 5.2% series X preferreds - a $200 million sale priced Monday and freed to trade Tuesday - were among the morning's most actively traded issues, with 195,000 shares trading at about $24.85. The preferreds had been seen at $24.90 at 10 a.m. ET, the source added.

Later in the day, the preferreds were seen at $24.87 and had not yet listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a trader said.

By early afternoon, the PS Business Parks $100 million of 5.7% series V preferreds had freed to trade and were quoted by a source at $24.92. The $25-par shares were sold Tuesday.

Other issues seen trading included a La Salle Hotel Properties 7.5% series H preferred. The $25 par sale totaling $65 million was done on Jan. 19 and was seen in the secondary Wednesday at $24.85 to $24.92, a trader said.

A 5.45% 30-year senior note sold by Ventas Realty LP and Ventas Capital Corp. was "one of the better performing issues" as of midday, the trader said. The $25 par notes sold Feb. 28 were quoted at $25.15 to $25.28 in trading.

At the close, the Ventas issue was among the day's most actively traded securities, a trader said. The notes came in second place in volume, up 6 cents with 643,000 notes trading, at $25.33, behind a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. series I preferred. The Goldman preferreds were up 5 cents on the day to 768,000 in trading, at $25.10.

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