Morning Commentary: Mizuho eyes high-grade primary market; W.R. Berkley plans add-on

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Sept. 1 – The investment-grade primary market is set to remain active as September kicks off with at least two issuers offering bonds on Tuesday.

Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. is marketing two tranches of senior notes (A1/A-) that include senior fixed-to-floating rate notes and senior floating-rate notes.

W.R. Berkley Corp. plans to reopen its 4% senior notes due May 12, 2050 (Baa1/BBB+/A-) that were first priced on May 5 in a $300 million trade at 99.515 to yield 4.028%, or a Treasuries plus 270 basis points spread.

Deal volume on Monday was light with $300 million of issuance.

Host Hotels & Resorts, LP priced a $150 million reopening of its 3.5% 10-year green senior notes (Baa3/BBB-/BBB-), while Globe Life Inc. sold a $50 million add-on to its 2.15% senior notes due Aug. 15, 2030 (Baa1/A/BBB+) on Monday.

Also, Renasant Corp. priced $100 million of fixed-to-floating rate subordinated notes due Sept. 15, 2035 (Kroll: BBB).

Anywhere from zero to as much as $15 billion of deal volume is expected by market participants this week ahead of the Labor Day holiday.

For the month, syndicate sources forecast about $110 billion to as much as $165 billion of supply.

Secondary market volume opened the week strong with $21.35 billion of investment-grade corporate bonds traded, according to Trace.

In early activity on Tuesday, the iShares iBoxx Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF improved 0.06% to 135.39.

The Pimco Investment Grade Corporate Bond index edged up 0.08% to 115.51.

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