Quiet end to $5.5 billion week; Great Lakes slates, new deals less busy; Penney off on results

By Paul Deckelman

New York, May 12 – The high-yield primary arena closed out the week on Friday with no dollar-denominated and junk-rated offerings pricing during the session.

What activity there was on the primaryside took place behind the scenes, as maritime construction contractor Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp. was heard to be shopping around a $325 million issue of five-year notes, seen as the coming week’s business. The company plans to use the proceeds to fund a concurrently announced tender offer for its existing 2019 bonds and to repay some revolving credit debt.

The lack of any new issues on Friday left the week’s total of new junk issuance at $5.5 billion in 12 tranches, most of that having taken place in just one session, Tuesday, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

In the secondary sphere, traders said there was not anywhere near the kind of brisk volume in the recently priced issues seen over the previous several sessions. However, they did report a fair amount of dealings in this week’s new bonds from Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., CDK Global Inc. and Century Communities Inc.

Away from the new deals, J.C. Penny Co. Inc.’s bonds were mostly quoted lower even as the retailer’s stock swooned after it reported wider net and earnings per share losses, and falling sales.

Statistical market performance measures were unchanged to higher on Friday.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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