Roche prices $5.75 billion offering; Thomson Reuters, Niagara also price; spreads firm

By Aleesia Forni

Virginia Beach, Sept. 22 – Roche Holding AG, Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. and Thomson Reuters were among the names pricing new investment-grade bond deals during an active day for corporate issuers.

Despite a somewhat weaker tone to the overall market, most deals that priced were met with a solid response from investors.

“Everything went over really well today,” a market source said.

In total, the high-grade bond market saw more than $9.4 billion of investment-grade paper price on Monday, well on its way to meeting expectations of $20 billion to $25 billion of supply for the week.

The highlight of the session was a $5.75 billion, six-part new issue from Roche Holding to fund its pending acquisition of biotechnology company InterMune Inc.

The deal’s order book was nearly two and a half times oversubscribed, with the fixed-rate tranches pricing around 10 bps tighter compared to initial guidance.

The high-grade primary also hosted Thomson Reuters, which sold $1 billion of senior notes in tranches due 2017 and 2024 tight of price guidance.

Details of Niagara Mohawk’s new issue were unavailable at press time.

Also on Monday, Tiffany & Co. sold a $550 million issue of senior notes in tranches due 2024 and 2044.

Old Republic International Corp. and Trinity Industries Inc. were each in the market with upsized $400 million offerings of senior notes, respectively.

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