HP, Fidelity, Healthpeak, Principal, American Campus, Westlake price; spreads soften

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., June 9 – High-grade supply on Tuesday included new issues from HP Inc., Fidelity National Financial, Inc. and Healthpeak Properties, Inc.

HP priced $3 billion of fixed-rate senior notes (Baa2/BBB/BBB+) in three tranches.

Fidelity National Financial brought $650 million of 10-year senior notes (Baa2/BBB) to the primary market in an offering upsized from $500 million.

Healthpeak Properties sold $600 million of senior notes due Jan. 15, 2031 (Baa1/BBB+/BBB+).

Also, Principal Financial Group, Inc. priced $500 million of 10-year senior notes (Baa1/A-/A-) on Tuesday.

American Campus Communities Operating Partnership LP tapped the market with $400 million of guaranteed senior notes due Jan. 30, 2031 in a deal upsized from $350 million.

Westlake Chemical Corp. sold $300 million of 10-year senior notes (Baa2/BBB-/BBB) during the session.

In other supply, bank holding company Associated Banc-Corp (A3/BBB+/BBB+) priced $100 million of $25-par perpetual preferred shares in an offering upsized from $75 million.

Also on Tuesday, Credit Agricole SA offered new six-year notes (Baa1/A+) with talk at the 185 bps spread area.

In the SSA primary market, Inter-American Development Bank (Aaa/AAA) launched a $4 billion offering of five-year notes early Tuesday at mid-swaps plus 17 bps.

Kommunalbanken AS (Aaa/AAA) also launched a $1.5 billion offering of 10-year global notes notes at mid-swaps plus 38 basis points on Tuesday.

In addition, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or World Bank, launched a dollar-denominated offering of four-year floating-rate notes (Aaa/AAA/AAA) on Tuesday at SOFR plus 39 bps.

Investment-grade corporate issuers priced more than $12 billion of bonds over Monday’s session. The SSA space was quiet on Monday.

About $30 billion to $40 billion of investment-grade deal volume is expected in the primary market this week.

Credit spreads widened over 5 basis points on Tuesday after easing nearly 2 bps on Monday. The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 33 index headed out at a spread of 71.9 bps.

High-grade corporate bond spreads have retraced 81% of their spread widening from March, according to a BofA Securities, Inc. research note released on Tuesday.

“Given very strong technicals in U.S. IG credit spreads should continue to outperform,” BofA analysts said. “In contrast EM and Asia IG have lagged in the race to retrace. Within U.S. credit, U.S. banks and high-quality industrials have outperformed, while BB- and CCC-rated issuers have lagged.”

High-grade spreads in the energy, health care and tobacco sectors have retracted the most, while REITs, leisure and and finance issues have recovered the least, according to the note.

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