Digicel drives by, moves up; recent bonds busy; Sitel bonds gain as Onex eyes possible sale

By Paul A. Harris and Paul Deckelman

New York, Feb. 24 – After a one-day hiatus, the high-yield primary market returned to pricing on Tuesday, bringing one quickly shopped deal to market – a $925 million offering of eight-year notes from Caribbean wireless provider Digicel Ltd. Traders said the new bonds gained in initial aftermarket dealings.

They meanwhile also saw active dealings in recently priced offerings, including Sprint Corp., Dean Foods Co., PetSmart, Inc. and Wynn Las Vegas LLC.

Away from the new deals, there was some upside activity in Sitel Worldwide Corp.’s bonds, spurred by news reports that the call-center operator’s owner – the private equity firm Onex Corp. – is looking to sell the company in a deal that could be worth close to $1 billion.

Also on the M&A front, there was some follow-up activity in the bonds off Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd., which had been actively traded on Monday on the news that Valeant has agreed to acquire Salix.

Overall market activity, though, was a little muted, traders said, citing this week’s J.P. Morgan high-yield conference in Florida, which always attracts a big crowd of portfolio managers and other investment decision-makers.

Statistical indicators of junk market performance turned higher across the board on Tuesday after having been mixed on Monday.

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