Morning Commentary: Vodafone launches deal; market quiets in front of likely rate hike

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Sept. 26 – Vodafone Group plc is offering three tranches of hybrid notes on Wednesday, including up to $1.25 billion of 6.25% dollar-denominated notes.

The deal from the London-based telecommunications company also includes €500 million of euro-denominated notes and £300 million or more of pound sterling notes.

The bookrunners on the dollar-denominated notes are BofA Merrill Lynch, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Standard Chartered Bank.

Otherwise, the high-grade market was quiet at the start of the day with little activity expected ahead of the release of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy statement. Market sources expect a rate hike of 25 basis points.

Week to date, high-grade issuers have priced nearly $10 billion of bonds.

About $20 billion to $25 billion of issuance is expected by market sources for the week.

In the secondary market, investment-grade trading volume totaled $17.93 billion on Tuesday, up from $16.21 billion on Monday, according to Trace.

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