Primary rolls on with Charter, Superior, Cornerstone, Valvoline; funds gain $195 million

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, Aug. 3 – The high-yield primary kept rolling along on Thursday, with nearly $3 billion of new dollar-denominated and junk-rated paper coming to market from four issuers, including three opportunistically timed and quickly shopped offerings.

The day’s action was led by an upsized $1.5 billion 10.5-year offering from cable television operator Charter Communications, Inc. via a pair of funding subsidiaries.

It also featured somewhat smaller offerings from oil and gas operator Superior Energy Services, Inc., which priced $500 million of seven-year notes, chemical producer Cornerstone Chemical Co., which did an upsized $450 million of seven-year secured paper, and automotive lubricants producer Valvoline Inc., with $400 million of eight-year notes.

All of the day’s issues traded actively in the aftermarket, with Superior and Valvoline doing especially well.

Traders also saw considerable activity in other recently priced issues, including Wednesday’s offerings from Ashtead Group plc and AK Steel Corp. and Tuesday’s new credits from United States Steel Corp. and Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc.

Statistical market performance measures turned lower across the board on Thursday after being better all around on Tuesday and again on Wednesday.

However, another numerical indicator was on the plus side on Thursday, as flows of investor cash into or out of high yield mutual funds and exchange-traded funds rose moderately this week, adding $195 million.

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