Sprint, McDonald’s price notes; Assurant plans investor calls; Campbell Soup softens

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., March 14 – Deal action on Wednesday included new investment-grade bonds from Sprint Corp. and McDonald’s Corp.

Sprint’s offering of $3,937,500,000 of senior secured notes announced at the start of the week priced in two tranches.

McDonald’s tapped the high-grade bond market with $1.5 billion of senior medium-term notes in three tranches. The deal had a total order book of $6.65 billion, a source said.

Primary action has thinned since Monday’s heavy volume of more than $14 billion of bonds, but several issuers are eyeing transactions, sources report.

Coming up on Thursday, Assurant Inc. will kick off a round of fixed income investor calls for a three-part note offering.

Other issuers, including Rio Tinto plc and Valero Energy Partners LP, have held roadshows and investor calls ahead of possible deals.

Also on Thursday, the Federal Home Loan Bank System said it plans to issue global bonds due March 30, 2020.

New issues have priced with wider concessions and are trading weaker in the secondary market, putting pressure on supply, according to a BofA Merrill Lynch note released on Wednesday.

“We estimate average new issue concessions widened to 13.8 [basis points] so far this week from 10.9 bps last week and 6.9 bps during the week of February 26,” the note said.

Campbell Soup Co.’s $5.3 billion notes (Baa2/BBB/) priced in seven tranches on Monday were softer along with several other new issues, according to market sources.

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