U.S. Cellular upsizes senior notes offering; State Street’s recent deal admitted to NYSE

By Stephanie N. Rotondo

Phoenix, Dec. 1 – Preferred stocks were mildly volatile in early trading but ended in a slow and steady decline as the last month of the year kicked off.

The Wells Fargo Hybrid and Preferred Securities index declined 28 basis points by the end of the day. It was up 1 bp at mid-morning.

In primary goings-on, United States Cellular Corp. brought an offering of $275 million 7.25% $25-par senior notes due 2063.

Price talk was 7.25% to 7.375%, according to a market source.

The deal was upsized from $200 million.

The source pegged the issue at less 40 bid in the early gray market.

Another source saw the issue at $24.70.

Late in the session, the issuer sold $275 million of the $25-par notes at par to yield 7.25%. The notes become callable beginning Dec. 8, 2019.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, RBC Capital Markets, UBS Securities LLC and Wells Fargo Securities LLC are running the books.

The Chicago-based wireless telecommunications company will use proceeds for general corporate purposes.

Meanwhile, State Street Corp.’s $750 million of 6% series E noncumulative preferreds – a deal priced Nov. 18 – listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

The ticker symbol is “STTPE.”

Paper was trading at $25.01 at mid-morning, up from a par open but down from the high of $25.05.

But as the market dwindled, so did the preferreds, which finished the day off 4 cents at $24.98.

Among other recently priced deals, Public Storage’s $175 million of 5.875% series A cumulative perpetual preferreds bucked the day’s trend, rising a dime to $24.90.

That deal came Nov. 20.

Overall, secondary trading volume in paying securities was “on the light side,” a market source noted. However, he said that Fannie Mae issues were trading actively, despite any fresh news to act as a catalyst.

The 8.25% series S fixed-to-floating rate noncumulative preferreds (OTCBB: FNMAS) closed off 3 cents at $4.29, with about 2.9 million shares trading. The 8.25% series T noncumulative preferreds (OTCBB: FNMAT) meantime improved 11 cents, or 1.98%, to $5.67.

About 2.27 million of the preferreds traded.

© 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.