Block Financial, Svenska Handelsbanken, IADB price to close week; JPMorgan, Citigroup firm

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, Sept. 25 – Block Financial LLC, Svenska Handelsbanken AB and Inter-American Development Bank sold new bond offerings amid supportive market conditions to close the week for investment-grade bonds.

The rare active Friday session saw Block Financial attract an order book that was around 1.5 times oversubscribed for its new $1 billion issue, which is guaranteed by H&R Block, Inc.

Svenska Handelsbanken, meanwhile, priced $1.5 billion of five-year notes in two tranches.

The floating-rate portion of the deal was added following the offering’s guidance stage, and the fixed-rate tranche sold around 12 basis points tight of initial talk.

Also on Friday, Inter-American Development Bank priced a $225 million add-on to its existing floaters due 2018.

The day’s activity pushes the week’s total supply to roughly $29.1 billion.

Investment-grade bonds were mixed in secondary trading on Friday, and credit spreads headed out weaker.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s 4.25% subordinated notes due 2027 that priced on Wednesday traded about 2 bps better than issuance.

Citigroup Inc.’s new 4.45% subordinated notes due 2027 improved about 1 bp in secondary trading on Friday.

AT&T Inc.’s 4.75% bonds due 2046 remained weaker over the session.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 25 index widened 2 bps from the previous day to a spread of 88 bps on Friday.

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