Intel sells $7 billion for Altera acquisition; credit spreads widen; UnitedHealth firms

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, July 22 – A hodgepodge of investment-grade names came to the primary market to raise more than $14.47 billion of new issuance on Wednesday.

Intel Corp. was the highlight of the session, bringing to market a $7 billion issue of senior notes to help fund its acquisition of Altera Corp. – a transaction valued at about $16.7 billion.

The “highly anticipated” four-part trade sold between 15 basis points and 25 bps tighter than initial price thoughts, a market source said.

In other primary happenings, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) priced $3.5 billion of global bonds, while FMS Wertmanagement sold a $1.5 billion new issue.

Both offerings came at the tight end of price guidance.

Other issuers including Kansas City Southern Railway Co., Fifth Third Bancorp and Valspar Corp. also priced deals on Wednesday despite the continued weaker market backdrop.

Comerica Inc. offered an upsized $525 million two-tranche new issue. Details were unavailable at press time.

The flurry of primary activity pushes the week’s total new issuance to nearly $34 billion, closing in on what was predicted to be around $35 billion to $40 billion of supply.

Investment-grade credit spreads softened over the day with the Markit CDX North American Investment Grade index 2 bps wider at a spread of 69 bps on Wednesday.

UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s new senior notes (A3/A+/A-) that priced on Monday were quoted tighter in trading earlier in the session.

© 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.