Primary picks up with State Street, McGraw Hill, Burlington deals; Time Warner Cable soft

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, Aug. 13 – Investment-grade primary activity resumed on Thursday following a two-day lull, with issuers bringing $8.9 billion of bonds to market.

The active session came on the heels of China’s central bank slowing the pace of the depreciation of the yuan and saying there would be no reason for its currency to fall further.

Taking advantage of the stronger market tone, a hodgepodge of issuers including State Street Corp., McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC, Capital One NA and FMS Wertmanagement entered the day’s primary.

McGraw Hill Financial sold $2 billion of senior notes in connection with its acquisition of SNL Financial LC.

Burlington Northern issued an upsized $1 billion two-part offering, with tranches pricing between 10 basis points to 12 bps tight of initial price thoughts.

The session also hosted smaller-sized deals from Ralph Lauren Corp., Kansas City Power & Light Co., Interstate Power & Light Co. and Ares Finance Co. LLC.

Burlington Northern’s two-part offering of debentures tightened modestly in aftermarket trading, though in light activity.

“Not seeing much on them,” a trader said.

In other secondary trading, Time Warner Inc.’s notes (Baa2/BBB) traded 1 bp better on the short end to 5 bps wider on the long end.

Bonds from Time Warner Cable Inc., which is being acquired by Charter Communications, Inc., headed out weaker.

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