Rogers Communications, Kimberly-Clark price; Omers Finance Trust on deck; Aqua America eyed

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., April 23 – Rogers Communications Inc. and Kimberly-Clark Corp. tapped the high-grade primary market on Tuesday.

Rogers Communications brought $1.25 billion of 30-year senior notes, as well as a C$1 billion offering of 10-year senior notes.

Kimberly-Clark priced $700 million of 10-year senior notes.

Looking ahead, Omers Finance Trust plans to price a Rule 144A and Regulation S offering of dollar-denominated five-year notes.

In other activity, several companies, including Cantor Fitzgerald and Aqua America Inc., are holding fixed-income investor calls this week for possible deals, a market source said.

On Thursday, water utility Aqua America announced it had priced $1 billion of common stock and $585.8 million of tangible equity units to in part fund the $4.28 billion cash and debt acquisition of Peoples Natural Gas that was first announced in October.

“Aqua intends to use the net proceeds from these offerings, together with the net proceeds from future debt financings, which may include the issuance of debt securities and/or borrowings under its bridge facility, and proceeds from a private placement of common stock” to fund the acquisition and complete the redemption of approximately $314 million of certain Aqua outstanding notes, according to a news release.

The publicly traded water utility will hold its first quarter earnings call on May 3. Following the merger expected to be completed in mid-2019, the combined company’s corporate headquarters will be in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

On Monday, the only offering in the high-grade market was a $450 million preferred deal from KeyCorp.

About $15 billion to $25 billion of supply this week is expected on average from market sources.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 32 index closed more than 1 basis point tighter at a spread of 57 bps after opening at 58 bps.

Rogers taps U.S, Canada

Rogers Communications sold $1.25 billion of 4.35% 30-year senior notes at a Treasuries plus 140 bps spread on Tuesday, according to a market source and an FWP filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Initial price talk was in the Treasuries plus 155 bps area.

The notes (Baa1/BBB+/BBB+) priced at 99.667 to yield 4.37%.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch, TD Securities (USA) LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Scotia Capital (USA) Inc. and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC were the bookrunners.

In addition, Rogers Communications sold C$1 billion of 3.25% senior notes due 2029 (Baa1/BBB+/BBB+) on Tuesday.

The dollar- and Canadian dollar-denominated notes are guaranteed by Rogers Communications Canada Inc.

Rogers Communications is a Toronto-based communications and media company.

Kimberly-Clark prices

Kimberly-Clark priced $700 million of 3.2% 10-year senior notes (A2/A/) on Tuesday at 99.83 to yield 3.22%, or a a spread of 65 bps over Treasuries, according to an FWP filing with the SEC.

J.P. Morgan Securities, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and RBC Capital Markets LLC were the active bookrunners.

The consumer paper products company is based in Irving, Texas.

Omers markets notes

Omers Finance Trust plans to price a Rule 144A and Regulation S offering of dollar-denominated five-year notes, according to a market source.

BofA Merrill Lynch, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities are the lead managers.

The company is under the family ratings of Omers Administration Corp. (Aa1/AA+/AAA).

Omers Finance is a Toronto-based financing arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.

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