Morning Commentary: Fiserv, Unum, Digital Realty, American Tower, Aircastle, DTE on tap

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., June 10 – Fiserv, Inc. moved forward on Monday with plans to tap the investment-grade primary market with a four-part dollar-denominated offering of fixed-rate senior notes.

The company (Baa2/BBB) held investor calls in the U.S. market on Wednesday and plans to hold a roadshow and investor calls in Europe from Tuesday through Thursday for an expected potential multi-currency deal, sources report.

A deal size of $10 billion or more was forecast.

Fiserv announced in January that it plans to acquire First Data Corp. (Ba3/BB-) in an all-stock transaction valued at about $22.7 billion. The merger is scheduled to close before the end of the year.

Fiserv, a Brookfield, Wis.-based financial services technology company, said it expects the combined company to retain investment-grade bond ratings following the acquisition.

Atlanta-based First Data provides commerce-enabling technology that serves businesses and financial institutions in more than 100 countries.

The high-grade primary market is set to remain busy over the session with other issuers also offering notes early Monday.

Unum Group (Baa2/BBB/BBB+) announced it intends to price new 10-year fixed-rate senior notes. The company held fixed income investor calls on Tuesday for the offering, a source said.

Digital Realty Trust, LP (Baa2/BBB/BBB) is marketing guaranteed fixed-rate notes.

American Tower Corp. (Baa3/BBB-/BBB) is on deck with fixed-rate senior notes due 2025 and 2029.

Aircastle Ltd. (Baa3/BBB-/BBB-) is offering fixed-rate senior notes due 2026.

Also, DTE Energy Co. (Baa1/BBB+/BBB+) plans to bring two tranches of fixed-rate senior notes to the primary market.

This week, syndicate sources said they expect about $20 billion to $25 billion of supply.

More than $24 billion of high-grade bonds priced last week, beating market forecasts of about $10 billion to $15 billion of issuance expected.

The secondary market also remained active as the week closed with $17.09 billion of high-grade bonds traded on Friday, Trace data shows.

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