Morning Commentary: AT&T offers seven-part deal; American Express to price; AT&T active

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., July 27 – AT&T Inc. is marketing seven tranches of global notes in the high-grade primary market on Thursday.

The company, which plans to acquire Time Warner Inc. in an $85.4 billion cash and stock deal expected to close before the end of 2017, released quarterly earnings on Tuesday.

Also on deck, American Express Co. is offering five-year fixed- and floating-rate notes.

In the secondary market, AT&T’s existing notes (Baa1/BBB+/A-) saw heavy trading over the morning, according to a market source.

AT&T’s 4.25% notes due March 1, 2027 were seen at 103.69 in late-morning trading. The notes last traded on Wednesday at 103.91, or 149 basis points bid, according to market sources.

The Dallas-based telecommunications company sold $2 billion of the notes on Jan. 31, 2017 at 99.94 to yield 4.26% and a spread of Treasuries plus 180 bps.

American Express’ 2.7% notes due March 3, 2022 (A2/A-/A) softened to 101.47 on Thursday morning from 101.77 in secondary trading on Wednesday, a market source said. The notes headed out in the previous session at 52 bps bid, another market source said.

American Express sold $1.75 billion of the five-year notes on Feb. 28 at 99.78 to yield 2.75% and a Treasuries plus 82 bps spread.

In the broader secondary market, trading volume totaled $20.43 billion on Wednesday, up from $19.2 billion on Tuesday and $13.3 billion on Monday, according to Trace.

© 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.