Cliffs, Consol calendar deals, four others price in busy session; Heinz jumps on Kraft news

By Paul A. Harris and Paul Deckelman

New York, March 25 – The high-yield new-deal world saw its second straight busy session on Wednesday, as half a dozen deals priced, most of them opportunistically timed and quickly shopped drive-by offerings.

The day’s tally of new junk bonds amounted to $2.57 billion, spaced over six tranches, according to syndicate sources.

Two of Wednesday’s transactions, from Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. and Consol Energy Inc., were regularly scheduled offerings off the forward calendar. The latter deal priced after having been downsized.

Besides those expected deals, favorable issuance conditions attracted a quartet of borrowers, including well-known junk issuer Ally Financial Inc.

There were also quick-to-market deals from Credit Acceptance Corp., Navient Corp. and funding subsidiaries of Outfront Media Inc. The latter deal was an add-on to its existing notes. All of the deals except for Outfront priced at a discount to par, and those that saw aftermarket action were little changed from their respective issue prices, though on busy volume.

Away from the new deals, H.J. Heinz Co.’s bonds and those issued by its H.J. Heinz Finance Co. subsidiary were mostly up sharply in active dealings on the news that the packaged foods giant will merge with sector peer Kraft Foods Group.

Statistical indicators of junk market performance were mixed for a second straight session on Wednesday versus their levels the session before.

© 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.