Marsh & McLennan taps dollar notes; Webster prices $300 million; BNG Bank plans reopening

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., March 20 – Marsh & McLennan Cos., Inc. priced a $250 million add-on to its 4.375% senior notes due March 15, 2029 on Wednesday, 40 basis points tighter than where the issue first priced in January.

The deal comes a week after the company priced €1.1 billion of reverse Yankee bonds in two tranches.

Proceeds, along with proceeds from the company’s $5 billion six-part senor note sale in January and its €1.1 billion of reverse Yankee bonds priced in two tranches on March 14, will be used in part to fund an acquisition of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc.

The acquisition is expected to close in the spring, though the notes have a special mandatory call at 101 if the merger is not completed on or before Dec. 31, 2019.

In other primary action on Wednesday, Webster Financial Corp. sold $300 million of 10-year senior notes on the tight side of guidance.

High-grade issuers have priced more than $13 billion of bonds week to date.

About $20 billion to $25 billion of supply was expected by syndicate sources for the week.

Coming up on Thursday, BNG Bank NV intends to price a $250 million tap of its senior floating-rate notes due March 11, 2022.

Market focus over the session centered on the Federal Reserve’s two-day monetary policy meeting that ended Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve kept the federal funds rate unchanged.

“Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in January indicates that the labor market remains strong but that growth of economic activity has slowed from its solid rate in the fourth quarter,” the Federal Reserve said in a press release.

Elsewhere, the Markit CDX North American Investment Grade index rolled to a new 32 series on Wednesday. The index closed about 7 bps wider from the previous day’s index at a spread of 64 bps.

Teck Resources Ltd. and Cisco Systems, Inc. were added to the index, while Aetna Inc. and Xerox Corp. were removed.

In the secondary market, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc’s $2 billion of 4.269% fixed-to-floating-rate senior notes due March 22, 2025 (Baa2/BBB-/A) that priced on Tuesday were earlier quoted 5 bps tighter than issuance, a source said.

The notes were priced at par to yield a spread of 185 bps over Treasuries. The issue has a fixed rate until June 22, 2024 and then will reset to a floating rate of Libor plus 176.2 bps to but excluding the maturity.

Marsh & McLennan reopens

Marsh & McLennan priced a $250 million add-on to its 4.375% senior notes due March 15, 2029 (Baa1/A-/) on Wednesday at a spread of 125 bps over Treasuries, according to a news release and an FWP filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The notes priced at 104.286 to yield 3.841%.

Marsh & McLennan originally priced $1.25 billion of 4.375% 10-year notes on Jan. 8 at 99.965 to yield 4.378% and a 165 bps over Treasuries spread. The total outstanding is now $1.5 billion.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., BofA Merrill Lynch, MUFG and Wells Fargo Securities LLC were the bookrunners.

Marsh & McLennan is a professional services firm based in New York.

Webster Financial prices $300 million

Webster Financial sold $300 million of 4.1% 10-year senior notes (Baa1/BBB/) on Wednesday at a spread of 160 bps over Treasuries, according to a market source.

The notes priced on the tight side of guidance in the Treasuries plus 165 bps area.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Sandler O’Neill + Partners, LP and BofA Merrill Lynch were the bookrunners.

Webster Financial is a Waterbury, Conn.-based bank holding company.

BNG Bank in deal pipeline

Looking to Thursday’s primary action, BNG Bank (Aaa/AAA/AA+) plans to price a $250 million reopening of its senior floating-rate notes due March 11, 2022, according to a market source.

The notes have a coupon of Libor plus 7 bps.

Initial price talk is in the Libor plus 5 bps area.

BNG Bank most recently priced a $300 million add-on to the issue on Feb. 12 to yield Libor plus 5 bps.

The issue was originally priced in a $500 million offering on April 5, 2018 at Libor plus 7 bps. The total outstanding is currently $1.26 billion.

Citigroup Global Markets and Scotia Capital (USA) Inc. are the bookrunners of the Rule 144A- and Regulation S-eligible transaction.

The banking services company, formerly known as N.V. Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten, is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

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