TerraForm, upsized Platform megadeal close $4.8 billion primary week, new bonds head higher

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, Jan. 23 – After a robust start and a quieter mid-week, the high-yield primary sphere closed out the holiday-shortened week on Friday in high style, pricing a pair of new deals totaling close to $1.8 billion.

Syndicate sources said that Miami-based chemical manufacturer Platform Specialty Products Corp. priced an upsized $1.2 billion equivalent dual-currency offering, which included an upsized $1 billion of seven-year notes as well as a euro-denominated tranche of eight-year paper.

Traders said the new dollar-denominated notes were solidly higher when they were freed for aftermarket dealings, with volume soaring to over $100 million, making that easily the busiest credit in Junkbondland.

Unlike the quickly shopped drive-by deals that dominated the first part of the week, the Platform deal was a regularly scheduled transaction pricing off the forward calendar, as was the day’s other pricing – clean-energy company TerraForm Power Operating, LLC’s $800 million issue of eight-year notes.

The day’s twin deals brought the week’s issuance of new dollar-denominated, fully junk-rated paper from domestic or industrialized-country borrowers up to $4.83 billion in nine tranches, according to data compiled by Prospect News. That was virtually identical to the $4.81 billion in nine tranches which had priced the week before, ended Jan. 16.

Traders saw the week’s new deals mostly trading up from their respective issue prices.

Statistical indicators of junk market performance were better across the board for a third consecutive session on Friday, after having been mixed for four straight sessions before that.

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