Three-part ZF Friedrichshafen, Horizon Pharma cap $11.5 billion week, new bonds better

By Paul A. Harris and Paul Deckelman

New York, April 24 – The high-yield primary arena closed out a busy week with a bang on Friday, recording one of the biggest new-issue days seen so far this year.

But the action was hardly broad-based, with most of the day’s paper coming from just one giant-sized deal, as German auto parts manufacturer ZF Friedrichshafen AG priced $3.5 billion in five-, seven- and 10-year tranches as a regularly scheduled forward calendar offering. Traders saw all of those new bonds moving up in heavy initial aftermarket dealings.

Another European issuer visiting the dollar market was Irish drugmaker Horizon Pharma Inc., with a financing subsidiary doing a regularly scheduled, upsized $475 million of eight-year paper. Those bonds firmed smartly in secondary dealings.

Electric and electronic cable and fasteners producer Optimas OE Solutions, LLC priced a $225 million six-year secured offering off the forward calendar, with the new bonds quoted higher afterward.

The day’s lone quick-to-market transaction involved plastics manufacturer Techniplas, LLC, whose $175 million issue of five-year secured paper saw good gains when those notes were freed for trading.

The deals raised the week’s issuance total to $11.5 billion in 15 tranches, according to the data, although that still trailed the $12.74 billion that had come to market in 17 tranches last week, ended April 17.

Statistical measures of secondary market performance turned higher on Friday after having been mixed over the previous two sessions.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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