Primary prices $1.8 billion; DISH notes soften; Station Casinos up; Ford unchanged

By Paul A. Harris and Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Nov. 15 – The Nov. 15 week in the high-yield new-issue market got underway to a burst of business, as four drive-by issuers, each bringing a single junk-rated, dollar-denominated tranche, raised $1.8 billion.

None of the issuers upsized their offerings.

While all of the session's deals came within talk, they tended not to be the razor-sharp executions that were more or less the rule in late summer.

Two of Monday's four deals priced at the wide ends of talk.

One came in the middle of talk.

Only one of Monday's deals came at the tight end of talk.

Compass Group Diversified Holdings LLC priced a $300 million issue of 5% senior notes due January 2032 (B1/B+) at par, at the tight end of the 5% to 5¼% yield talk, and tight to initial guidance in the low 5% area.

Describing it as the deal of the day, a trader said that Compass Group Diversified, a “clubby name,” was playing to a $560 million order book, around 2 p.m. ET Monday.

At the session's close the trader marked the new 5% notes due January 2032 at par ¼ bid, par ¾ offered, noting it changed hands at 5:19 p.m. ET at par 3/8.

Meanwhile Covanta Holding Corp. announced a $300 million offering of sustainability-linked unsecured notes backing the buyout of the company by EQT Infrastructure.

The deal is set to be shopped on an investor conference call at 10:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday and to price later in the day.

Covanta was the only dollar-denominated business on the active forward calendar at the end of Monday's session.

New issues priced late in the day on Monday and were not immediately seen in the secondary market, a source said.

The new secured notes (Ba3/B+) from DISH Network Corp. and DISH DBS Corp. stayed soft over the session.

Dish’s 5¾% notes due 2028 were down 3/8 point.

“They did trade up around 1/8 to ¼ point, but coming in today, they have been softer,” a source said.

Station Casinos LLC’s $500 million issue of 4 5/8% senior notes due 2031 (B3/B-), priced in the prior week, edged up 1/8 point on $23 million of volume.

Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co.’s 3¼% senior green bonds due 2032 (Ba2/BB+/BB+) continued to attract attention in the secondary space with nearly $29 million of supply on Monday.

$82 million Friday inflows

The dedicated high-yield bond funds saw $82 million of net daily inflows on Friday, the most recent session for which data was available at press time, according to a market source.

High-yield ETFs saw $52 million of inflows on the day.

Actively managed high-yield funds saw $30 million of inflows on Friday, the source said.

DISH lower

Paper from Dish remained soft on Monday in strong trading action, a source said.

Dish’s 5¾% notes due 2028 were down 3/8 point at 99 5/8 bid by the close.

Secondary volume totaled $30 million.

The company’s 5¼% notes due 2026 were quoted off nearly 3/8 point at the 99¾ bid area over $39.5 million of trading during the session.

Both tranches were priced Wednesday at par.

DISH sold $2.75 billion of the 5¼% notes in the middle of yield talk in the 5¼% area and $2.5 billion of the 5¾% notes in the middle of yield talk in the 5¾% area.

The Englewood, Colo., satellite broadcasting company’s deal was upsized from $4 billion with total orders heard to be over $9 billion.

Station Casinos better

Station Casinos’ 4 5/8% senior notes due 2031 (B3/B-) remain better than issuance with the notes up 1/8 point to 100 3/8 bid on $23 million of volume Monday, a source said.

The company sold $500 million of the notes on Wednesday at par to yield 4 5/8%.

The Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company priced the notes in a drive-by at the tight end of yield talk in the 4¾% area and well inside of initial guidance in the low 5% area.

Ford notes unchanged

Ford Motor’s 3¼% senior green bonds due 2032 (Ba2/BB+/BB+) went out flat at 100 3/8 bid on nearly $29 million of secondary supply Monday, a source said.

The bonds were priced a week ago in a $2.5 billion offering at par and tighter than talk in the 3 5/8% area.

Ford also in November announced a tender offer for up to $5 billion of junk bonds as it moves forward in reclaiming investment-grade status.

The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker was downgraded to junk in March 2020.

Indexes mixed

The iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF fell 10 cents to $86.75 on Monday.

The CDX High Yield 30 index went out flat at 109.27 after dropping 42 basis points over the prior week.

The KDP High Yield Daily index closed out at 69.63 with a yield of 3.91%, compared to 69.77 and a 3.85% yield on Friday.

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