Primary pace quickens as Ashtead, Sirius add-ons, AK price; new U.S. Steel, Diamond active

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, Aug. 2 – The high-yield primary pace picked up on Wednesday as a trio of issuers brought nearly $2 billion of new junk-rated, dollar-denominated paper to market in a series of quickly shopped offerings.

British industrial equipment rental company Ashtead Group plc led the way with a $1.2 billion offering of eight- and 10.25-year secured notes, evenly split into two tranches.

Among the domestic issuers, satellite broadcaster Sirius XM Radio Inc. priced $500 million in two add-on tranches to the five- and 10-year notes that the company sold in late June.

AK Steel Corp. was the sole single-tranche issuer of the day, doing $280 million of eight-year notes.

It was the second deal in as many days coming from the industrial metals sector, following on the heels of Tuesday’s big offering from AK rival United States Steel Corp. That 10-year deal was meanwhile the busiest credit in Wednesday’s Junkbondland activity, easing in heavy trading.

Not far behind on the Most Actives list were Tuesday’s other offerings, from Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. and Penske Automotive Group, Inc.

Away from the new deals, traders saw AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.’s various bond issues under pressure even as the movie-theater operator’s stock slid after disappointing earnings.

Statistical market performance measures were better for a second consecutive session on Wednesday; they had turned higher across the board on Tuesday after having been mixed over the previous two sessions and lower all around the session before that.

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