Bear Stearns, ING, Thomson, Eaton Vance price; September new issues total more than $92 billion

By Andrea Heisinger

Omaha, Sept. 27 - Financials again made up the bulk of investment grade new issues Thursday, with Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. pricing $2.5 billion in global senior notes and ING Groep NV pricing $1.5 billion in perpetual hybrids.

The Bear Stearns issue of 6.4% notes priced at 99.708 to yield 6.44%, a spread of Treasuries plus 187.5 basis points.

ING's issue of 7.375% perpetual hybrid capital securities priced at par of $25.

Also pricing was Thomson Corp., with $800 million in 5.7% notes due 2014 coming to market at 99.217 to yield 5.838%, or a spread to Treasuries plus 148 basis points.

Eaton Vance Corp. priced an upsized $500 million in 6.5% 10-year senior notes. They have a price of 99.862 to yield 6.519% at a spread of Treasuries plus 195 bps. The issue launched at $350 million.

Bear's pricing noted, market stable

One market source called the size and price of the Bear Stearns deal surprising.

"It's pretty good considering they couldn't even come to the market a couple of months ago," the source said.

New issue premiums are also staying down, with Bear Stearns paying about 10 bps when it would have been 30 bps in recent weeks.

The overall tone of the market remained stable, sources said, with one saying "there's nothing sexy happening."

RBS prices, tightens

Terms of Wednesday's multi-part issue from The Royal Bank of Scotland plc were released Thursday.

The $1.5 billion in 7.640% non-cumulative dollar preferred shares priced at par of $100,000, while the $1.6 billion in 6.99% preferred capital securities also priced at par of $100,000.

The issue also contained parts in Canadian dollars, Euros and pounds sterling.

"They're about 40 basis points tighter, every single one," a market source said of how the parts were doing in secondary trading.

The Goldman Sachs Group's issue of $2.5 billion in 6.75% 30-year notes priced at Treasuries plus 190 bps and was trading at about 180 bps midday Thursday, sources said.

The notes had moved back out to 186 bps by mid-afternoon, a secondary source said.

Bear Stearns' issue was trading slightly wider at 188 bps after it priced at 187.5 bps.

$92 billion month

A backlog of new issues from previous weeks didn't come out this week, to some sources' surprise.

Despite this, September beat August's total for new issues, according to one market source's calculations.

August had more than $90 billion in issues, while September has upwards of $92 billion.

"Things are looking pretty good, and all those financials helped," a source said.

There shouldn't be much for new issues Friday, he added.

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