Safe Bulkers prices; National General’s recent deal active, better; SunTrust dominates

By Stephanie N. Rotondo

Phoenix, June 23 – A preferred stock trader said he was hearing at least three new deals were going to hit the pipeline this week.

Safe Bulkers Inc. got the ball rolling on Monday, pricing a $70 million offering of 8% series D cumulative redeemable perpetual preferreds via Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and UBS Securities LLC.

After the deal came, the trader quoted the issue at $24.60 bid, $24.70 offered.

After the market closed, a market source said he hadn’t seen any quotes for the paper.

“It’s like a B+ type preferred,” he said, adding it was “not exactly a great credit.”

As for the company’s existing preferreds, the 8% series C cumulative redeemable perpetual preferreds (NYSE: SBPC) ended the day down 13 cents at $25.21.

Among recent deals, National General Holdings Corp.’s $55 million of 7.5% series A noncumulative preferreds – a deal that priced Wednesday – were quoted at $24.70 bid, $24.75 offered early in the day.

A source said after the bell that the issue was among the day’s most liquidly traded securities, closing up 15 cents to $24.85.

A source noted that total volume for the day was quite muted – only one paying issue saw trades of over 400,000, he said.

That issue was SunTrust Banks Inc.’s variable-rate series A perpetual preferreds (NYSE: STIPA), which dropped 17 cents to $20.35.

Just over 844,000 shares changed hands.

© 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.