ANZ sells $1.25 billion; BPCE prices; Visa stable; McDonald’s softens; credit spreads ease

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Jan. 27 – Two high-grade issuers tapped the market on Wednesday, while primary action remains light on the week.

ANZ New Zealand Ltd. priced $1.25 billion of senior notes in two tranches.

BPCE SA brought $750 million of 2.65% five-year senior notes at a spread of 127 basis points over Treasuries.

Volume for the rest of the week is “sort of unclear at this point, given how the market is,” a source said on Wednesday.

In the secondary market, investment-grade bonds traded mostly flat to softer.

Visa Inc.’s senior notes (A1/A+) were unchanged.

McDonald’s Corp.’s bonds traded 2 bps to 3 bps weaker on the day.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 25 index eased 1 bp to close at a spread of 105 bps.

ANZ prints $1.25 billion

ANZ New Zealand priced $1.25 billion of senior notes in two tranches on Wednesday, according to a market source.

The company sold $750 million of 2.25% three-year notes at 99.991 to yield 2.253%. The notes priced with a spread of 115 bps over Treasuries.

ANZ also sold $500 million of 2.75% five-year notes at 99.893 to yield 2.773%. The notes priced at a spread of 130 bps over Treasuries.

ANZ Securities, Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC were the bookrunners.

ANZ New Zealand is a Wellington, New Zealand-based financial services group and subsidiary of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. of Australia.

BPCE prices $750 million

BPCE (A2/A/A) sold $750 million of 2.65% five-year senior notes on Wednesday at a spread of 127 bps over Treasuries, according to a market source.

The notes priced at 99.828 to yield 2.687%.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., Morgan Stanley and Natixis Securities Americas LLC were the lead managers.

The financial services company is based in Paris.

Visa unchanged

Visa’s 3.15% notes due 2025 were unchanged on Wednesday at 105 bps bid, according to a market source.

The company sold $4 billion of the bonds on Dec. 9 at Treasuries plus 97 bps.

Visa’s 4.3% bonds due 2045 were flat at 133 bps bid.

Visa sold $3.5 billion of the bonds in the Dec. 9 offering at Treasuries plus 132 bps.

The retail electronic payments network operator is based in San Francisco.

McDonald’s eases

McDonald’s 3.7% notes due 2026 eased 3 bps to 166 bps bid in the secondary market, a source said.

The company sold $1.75 billion of the notes (Baa1/BBB+/BBB+) on Dec. 2 at a spread of Treasuries plus 155 bps.

The fast food chain is based in Oak Brook, Ill.

© 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.