Weatherford, Pilgrim’s Pride, GFL drive by; new Sears busy; Rite Aid, Albertsons fall

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, Feb. 21 – For a second consecutive session, the recently sleepy high-yield primary market was sparkling brightly on Wednesday, with three issuers bringing four tranches of new dollar-denominated and fully junk-rated paper totaling $1.5 billion to market – on top of the $3.35 billion that came clattering down the chute on Tuesday, the biggest-volume day the new issue market has seen so far this year.

Switzerland-based oilfield services company Weatherford International plc priced a quickly shopped $600 million of seven-year notes.

Poultry processor Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. flew in with an upsized $500 million two-part offering of add-on notes to two existing series of bonds, while Canadian waste management and environmental services provider GFL Environmental Inc. did a $400 million five-year issue.

Like Weatherford’s deal, the Pilgrim’s Pride and GFL deals were quick-to-market transactions.

Traders saw heavy volume in the three tranches that priced on Tuesday, from wireless provider Sprint Corp. and Canadian mining concern First Quantum Minerals Ltd. Most of the day’s trades in all three straddled their respective par issue prices.

Away from the new deals, traders reported very active dealings for a second day in a row in pharmacy operator Rite Aid Corp.’s bonds and those of supermarket giant Albertsons LLC, which announced on Tuesday that it will acquire Rite Aid. In contrast to Tuesday’s action, Wednesday saw both companies’ bonds hammered down.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.