Media General launches deal; new Charter bonds busy, higher; funds see $1.57 billion inflow

By Paul Deckelman

New York, Oct. 30 – High-yield pricing activity slackened off Thursday after the primary’s big day on Wednesday, one of the biggest-volume sessions seen this year.

Syndicate sources said that no dollar-denominated and fully junk-rated deals from domestic or industrialized-country issuers were priced on Thursday, in contrast to the $3.9 billion of new paper that came out of the chute in three tranches on Wednesday – most of which came from just one borrower, Charter Communications, Inc.

Media General Inc. launched a $300 million offering of eight-year notes Thursday, whose proceeds will be part of the financing for its planned merger with sector peer LIN Media LLC. That issue had been expected to price later Thursday as a quick-to-market transaction, but that didn’t happen, despite apparent investor interest, and primaryside sources said the pricing had been pushed off till Friday morning.

Another no-show on Thursday was Essar Steel Algoma Inc., which has been shopping a $625 million two-part secured offering around for more than a week.

In the secondary realm, the new Charter Communications and Huntsman Corp. bonds that priced in quickly shopped offerings on Wednesday were heard by high-yield traders to have moved modestly above their respective par issue prices in active trading on Thursday.

Flows of cash into and out of high-yield mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, considered a reliable barometer of overall junk market liquidity trends, were seen up sharply for a second consecutive reporting week.

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