Weatherford extends gains after strong debut; Alibaba mandatory trades a little below par

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, June 3 – Two mega deals that launched and priced this past holiday-shortened week remained the focus of trade in U.S. convertibles on Friday, and the pricing trends for those issues were intact from when they debuted in the secondary market on Thursday, market sources said.

Weatherford International Ltd.’s $1.1 billion 5.875% exchangeable continued to trade strongly in good volume, and Softbank Group Corp.’s $5.5 billion of 5.75% mandatory securities exchangeable into Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. shares continued to lag.

The Weatherford exchangeables traded up to near 112 with shares a little higher, compared to 108.25 to 108.75 near the market close on Thursday, and the Alibaba mandatory was seen a little below par.

WebMD Health Corp.’s $300 million of 2.625% convertibles, a recent deal that priced last week, changed hands at 102.8, which was down about a point and mostly in line versus shares of the Elmwood Park, N.J.-based provider of health information services, which were down $1.15, or 1.8%, at $64.47.

WebMD’s older 1.5% convertibles due 2020 traded down in line with the lower shares at 136.8 points.

TimkenSteel Corp.’s $75 million of 6% convertibles, which also priced last week, traded at 104.4 on Friday, according to Trace data. Shares of the Canton, Ohio-based steel products maker were slightly lower in the early going but ended the session unchanged at $9.46. That level was better compared to shares at pricing of the convertibles issue at $9.08.

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