Supply picks up; Bank of America, Nordea, Zions, Timken price notes; AstraZeneca steady

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Aug. 22 – High-grade primary market activity picked up on Wednesday with several issuers pricing notes during the session.

Bank of America Corp. sold $1.75 billion of two-year floating-rate notes.

Nordea Bank AB priced $1 billion of five-year fixed- and floating-rate notes.

Zions Bancorporation raised $500 million in an offering of three-year senior notes.

Also, Timken Co. priced $400 million of long 10-year notes in the company’s first reported high-grade bond offering since 2014.

Nearly $9 billion of investment-grade bonds have been sold week to date, with just over $5 billion of issues brought to the primary market on Monday and Tuesday.

Thin volume was expected this week with about $5 billion to $10 billion of issuance forecast by syndicate sources.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 30 index closed mostly unchanged at a spread of 60 basis points.

AstraZeneca plc’s 4% notes due Jan. 17, 2029 priced in its $3 billion four-part deal on Aug. 14 were slightly better at 100.375 from the par area in the previous session in thin secondary trading, according to market sources. The notes were heavily traded on Tuesday.

The Cambridge, England-based biopharmaceutical company sold $1 billion of the notes (A3/BBB+/A-) at 99.59 to yield 4.049%, or at a spread of Treasuries plus 115 bps.

BofA sells $1.75 billion

Bank of America (A3/A-/A+) priced $1.75 billion of medium-term floating rate senior notes due Aug. 28, 2020 on Wednesday at Libor plus 25 bps, according to a market source.

Initial price talk on the notes was in the Libor plus 35 bps area.

BofA Merrill Lynch was the bookrunner.

The financial services company is based in Charlotte, N.C.

Nordea Bank raises $1 billion

Nordea Bank priced $1 billion of fixed- and floating-rate notes in two parts on Wednesday, according to a market source.

The bank sold $250 million of five-year floating-rate notes at Libor plus 94 bps.

The $750 million tranche of 3.75% five-year notes priced with a spread of 108 bps over Treasuries.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Goldman, Sachs & Co. LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and UBS Securities LLC were the lead managers.

Nordea Bank is a financial services group based in Stockholm.

Zions Bancorp prints

Zions priced $500 million of 3.5% three-year senior notes (Baa3BBB/BBB) on Wednesday at a spread of Treasuries plus 93 bps, according to a market source.

Price guidance on the notes was in the Treasuries plus 95 bps area, plus or minus 2 bps. The notes were initially talked to print in the Treasuries plus 110 bps area.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were the bookrunners.

Zions Bancorporation is a bank holding company based in Salt Lake City.

Timken brings $400 million

Timken priced $400 million of 4.5% senior notes due Dec. 15, 2028 (Baa3/BBB/BBB) on Wednesday at a spread of Treasuries plus 170 bps, according to a market source, press release and an FWP filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The notes priced at 99.868 to yield 4.517%.

The deal was upsized from an expected $350 million offering and priced on the tight side of guidance.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. were the bookrunners.

Timken is a Canton, Ohio-based mechanical components engineering, manufacturer and marketing company.

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