Bemis, Black Hills, SEK price; Pacific Gas sets deal calls; Ford Foundation in pipeline

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., June 12 – Several high-grade bond deals priced on Friday as tone improved after nearly a dozen issuers stood down in the previous two sessions.

Bemis Co., Inc. sold $500 million of 10-year senior notes (Baa2/BBB).

Black Hills Corp. priced $400 million of 10-year senior notes (Baa2/BBB+/BBB+).

United Community Banks, Inc. came by with $100 million of 10-year fixed-to-floating-rate senior notes (Kroll: BBB+).

Also, Swedish Export Credit Corp. priced an upsized $600 million reopening of its 1.75% medium-term global notes due Dec. 12, 2023 (Aa1/AA+/) during the session.

Investment-grade issuers brought more than $27 billion of bonds to the primary market over the week.

Looking ahead to next week, about $30 billion to $40 billion of new supply is expected, syndicate sources said.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is set to hold global fixed income investor calls on Monday for an investment-grade registered benchmark offering of first mortgage bonds as part of its reorganization funding from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

A $1 billion two-tranche offering of long-dated taxable social bonds (Aaa/AAA/) is expected from Ford Foundation on Thursday.

Market tone improved on Friday.

High-grade credit spreads firmed about 1.5 basis points on the day after widening more than 15 bps in the first four sessions.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 33 index closed Friday at a spread of 79.7 bps.

Stocks had plunged on Thursday and improved slightly on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 6.9% on Thursday and recovered 1.9% on Friday.

Meanwhile, inflows have remained strong over the past week ended Wednesday for high-grade bond funds and ETFs, according to a BofA Securities, Inc. research note released on Friday.

Bond funds and ETF inflows totaled $11.46 billion, the second highest on record, following a record $14.88 billion inflow in the prior week.

ETF investment-grade inflows declined to $6.17 billion from $9.03 billion a week earlier.

Fund inflows fell to $5.29 billion this past week from $5.85 billion in the prior week, according to the note.

Short-term high-grade inflows slipped to $3.54 billion from $5.41 billion.

Excluding short-term, inflows were lower at $7.93 billion from $9.46 billion in the previous week.

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