Oneok, Hill-Rom price; new Hill-Rom notes move up; market awaits oversubscribed KIK deal

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, Aug. 18 – The high-yield primary churned out its first new deals on Tuesday after three consecutive sessions of pricing inactivity, syndicate sources said.

All told, $925 million face amount of new dollar-denominated, fully junk-rated paper came to market in two tranches during the session.

Energy operator Oneok Inc. priced $500 million of eight-year notes, with the new paper coming at a discount to par.

Earlier, Hill-Rom Holdings Inc., a medical technology provider, had also done an eight-year deal, this one worth $425 million.

Both of the day’s pricings were regularly scheduled transactions off the forward calendar.

When the new Hill-Rom bonds hit the aftermarket, traders reported solid gains in very active trading.

They reported little immediate aftermarket activity in Oneok, which priced later in the session.

The syndicate sources meantime reported that the planned $390 million eight-year offering from KIK Custom Products Inc., a Canadian supplier of pool chemicals and household and personal care products, has been attracting considerable investor interest, causing it to be at least two-times oversubscribed.

KIK was the sole remaining deal on the active forward calendar, with market sources seeing further pricing activity after that as relatively unlikely during the traditional late-August lull heading into the Labor Day holiday break.

Statistical measures of junk market performance turned lower across the board on Tuesday after having been mixed over the previous three sessions.

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