ACE issues bonds to fund Chubb acquisition; Apple, Duke Energy mixed; Xerox widens

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, Oct. 27 – ACE INA Holdings Inc. and Boeing Co. led another charge of issuers to the high-grade primary session on Tuesday.

The trading day hosted $8.25 billion of new issuance, pushing the week’s total to $15.85 billion.

In a highly anticipated trade, ACE issued $5.3 billion of bonds in four maturities to help fund its $28 billion acquisition of Chubb Corp., with tranches selling between 15 basis points to 20 bps tight of initial price thoughts.

Deals brought to market continued to be met with a strong reception from investors, with Prologis LP and Transurban Finance Co. Pty. Ltd. each offering upsized new issues during the session.

Apple Inc.’s bonds (Aa1/AA+/) traded flat to 6 bps tighter on the long end ahead of the company’s fourth quarter earnings results that were released after the market closed and showed a strong performance.

Xerox Corp.’s 3.5% senior notes due 2020 widened about 30 bps on Tuesday in the secondary market.

Fitch Ratings announced on Tuesday that it placed the company’s ratings on Rating Watch Negative. Xerox announced on Monday that it will review its business operations to boost shareholder value following a third quarter profit loss.

Duke Energy Progress Inc.’s first mortgage bonds (Aa2/A/A+) were unchanged to 3 bps tighter on the short end in secondary trading on Tuesday. Parent company Duke Energy Corp. announced on Monday that it will acquire Piedmont Natural Gas Co., Inc. for $4.9 billion in cash and the assumption of $1.8 billion of debt.

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