Time Warner Cable, Goodrich, Total, Lincoln National, ITC price bonds; BlackRock three-years gain

By Andrea Heisinger and Paul Deckelman

New York, Dec. 8 - Time Warner Cable Inc., Goodrich Corp., Total Capital, Georgia Power Co., Wisconsin Electric Power Co., Lincoln National Corp., TCM Sub LLC and ITC Holdings Corp. all sold bonds on a Tuesday that showed new deals were still out there.

The sales were weighted towards small amounts from utility names, and nearly all but the Time Warner deal were priced by early afternoon.

Time Warner also sold the largest amount of bonds for the day, with $2 billion in two tranches of five- and 10-year notes.

French oil company Total priced $500 million of guaranteed notes.

TCM Sub priced $885 million of five-year notes in the 144A market. Power transmission company ITC also sold via Rule 144A, with $200 million in 10-year senior notes.

The lone financial sale came from Lincoln National. It priced $300 million of 10-year senior notes.

The remaining deals were from utility names.

Georgia Power priced $500 million in 10-year notes, with Wisconsin Electric pricing $250 million, also in 10-year notes.

The day's sales were done by mid-afternoon, and mostly performed well with oversubscribed books.

Among established issues in the secondary arena on Tuesday, a market source said the CDX Series 13 North American high-grade index had tightened by 1 basis point to a mid bid-asked spread level of 97 bps.

Advancing issues led decliners by a better than four-to-three ratio.

Spreads in general were seen wider, in line with lower Treasury yields; for instance, the yield on the benchmark 10-year notes fell by 5 bps Tuesday to 3.38%.

Overall market activity, reflected in dollar-volume totals, rose by 13% from Monday's pace.

BlackRock Inc.'s new three-year bonds were seen having tightened solidly from the spread versus the comparable Treasury issue at which they had priced on Monday. However, the other two parts of that big three-tranche mega-deal, its five-year and 10-year notes, were seen having come in by a considerably smaller amount.

Among Tuesday's deals, Goodrich Corp.'s new 10-year bonds were seen by traders as having tightened up significantly.

Time Warner Cable prices $2 billion

Time Warner Cable sold $2 billion of senior unsecured notes in two tranches.

The $500 million of 3.5% five-year notes priced at a spread of Treasuries plus 153 bps.

The $1.5 billion of 5% 10-year notes priced at Treasuries plus 188 bps.

Both tranches priced at the "very tight end" of talk, the informed source said. Books were about three times oversubscribed, he said, calling it a "big order."

Although the sale was the last to price for the day, it was done by 3 p.m. ET, the source said.

Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank Securities and Goldman Sachs & Co. ran the books.

Proceeds will be used to repay amounts under a five-year term loan facility maturing on Feb. 21, 2011 and borrowings under a commercial paper program.

The notes are guaranteed by subsidiaries Time Warner Entertainment Co. LP and TW NY Cable Holding Inc.

The cable company is based in New York City.

Goodrich offers notes early

Aerospace manufacturer Goodrich priced $300 million of 4.875% senior notes due 2020 early in the day at 153 bps over Treasuries. They were sold by early afternoon.

They came in tighter than talk that was in the "mid-to-high 160s [bps]," an informed source said. The books were "very oversubscribed," he added.

Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities and Calyon Securities ran the books for the company based in Charlotte, N.C.

Proceeds will be used to fund the purchase price for the acquisition of AIS Global Holdings LLC and for general corporate purposes.

Total sells $500 million

French oil company Total Capital priced $500 million in 4.25% 12-year guaranteed notes by early afternoon at Treasuries plus 100 bps.

They are guaranteed by parent company Total SA.

Bookrunner was Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The issuer is based in Courbevoie, France.

New deals perform well

The day saw a large amount of small deals, done quickly. "Everything did well," a market source said. "I'm hearing that away [from his own desk], too."

He cited the Wisconsin Electric sale as "doing really well," and of being oversubscribed.

There was a quiet start to the week, with the BlackRock, Inc. $2.5 billion sale mostly overshadowing everything else that priced.

"It [the market] was a different animal than yesterday," a source said. "Everyone was really receptive and open [to deals]."

The new issues are expected to keep coming, although the source admitted that he was "surprised at how busy it actually is" so far this week.

The day's sales were all priced early, with Time Warner the last to get done.

"They were all done relatively efficiently," a syndicate source said.

Georgia Power prices 10-years

Georgia Power sold $500 million of 4.25% 10-year notes quickly at Treasuries plus 90 bps, according to an FWP filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets, J.P. Morgan Securities and Mizuho Securities ran the books.

The proceeds will be used to repay a portion of outstanding short-term debt and for general corporate purposes, including a continuous construction program.

The electric subsidiary of the Southern Co. is based in Atlanta.

Lincoln National deal totals $300 million

Lincoln National priced $300 million of 6.25% 10-year senior notes at Treasuries plus 287.5 bps, a market source said.

UBS Securities and U.S. Bancorp Investments were bookrunners.

Proceeds are going to repay $250 million in floating-rate notes due March 12, 2010, and for general corporate purposes.

The insurance and investment holding company is based in Radnor Township, Pa.

Wisconsin Electric sells debentures

Wisconsin Energy Corp. subsidiary Wisconsin Electric Power priced $250 million of 4.25% 10-year debentures at Treasuries plus 90 bps, according to an FWP filing with the SEC.

Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs & Co. were bookrunners.

Proceeds will be used by the Milwaukee-based company to repay short-term debt and for working capital.

ITC prices via Rule 144A

Power transmission company ITC Holdings sold $200 million of 5.5% 10-year senior notes at 220 bps over Treasuries, a source close to the deal confirmed.

They were sold via Rule 144A and Regulation S.

Credit Suisse Securities and J.P. Morgan Securities were bookrunners for the deal from the Novi, Michigan-based issuer.

TCM prices bonds, finances acquisition

A joint venture between Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. and Cox Communications Inc. - TCM Sub, LLC sold $885 million of 3.55% five-year notes at 145 bps over Treasuries, a source close to the sale said.

The deal was done via Rule 144A.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley & Co. and Wells Fargo Securities were bookrunners.

The joint venture was created to facilitate Scripps' acquisition of a majority stake in the Travel Channel from Cox.

Scripps is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Cox Communications is based in Atlanta.

Shorter BlackRocks rolling

A trader said that BlackRock's new bonds - particularly the shortest piece of new paper - "were trading like mad today - there was a lot of interest in it."

The New York-based investment management firm's new 2.25% notes due 2012 were being offered in the morning at 100 bps over, which had narrowed further to 93 bps offered by late afternoon - well in from the 110 bps spread at which that $500 million issue had priced on Monday.

The trader made an analogy to the recent five-year note offering from Cisco Systems Inc., which had priced at 67 bps over a month ago as part of a three-tranche offering, and which then proceeded to tighten all the way down to the lower 40s from there in the subsequent sessions.

Meanwhile, though BlackRock's other two tranches of new bonds - its five-year and 10-year notes - failed to show the same kind of strong tightening, with the $1 billion of 5% 10-year notes going from a 160 bps over spread at pricing Monday to 159 bps bid, 158 bps offered. The $1 billion of 3.5% notes due 2014, which priced at 135 bps over, came in slightly to 132 bps bid, 128 bps offered.

"It looked like there was a lot of activity" in the three tranches of BlackRock bonds, the trader said, noting that they were "heavily oversubscribed, with some $10 billion of orders placed for the $2.5 billion worth of bonds that eventually did price.

The trader noted that the new bonds "were tighter this morning, but throughout the day, there were a lot of flippers who started coming in, causing the bonds to come back out a little bit.

"Right after they priced, they came in nicely, but once the flippers came in, they widened out a little - but it looks like there's still lots of interest in them."

Goodrich is pretty good

Among the deals which priced on Tuesday, traders saw Goodrich Corp.'s new 4.875% notes due 2020 as a standout, with one quoting the Charlotte, N.C. aircraft components supplier's bonds as having tightened to 140 bps bid, 138 offered, after $300 million of them had priced at 153 bps over.

"There were buyers out there," said another trader, after seeing the bonds price and then move to a 145 bps bid, 143 bps offered level.

Time Warner Cable tightens slightly

Looking at Tuesday's big deal, a trader said that Time Warner Cable's new 5% notes due 2020 firmed modestly to 184 bps bid, 175 bps offered from the 188 bps level at which that $1.5 billion of bonds had priced.

He did not see any levels in the company's $500 million of 3.50% notes due 2015, which priced at 153 bps over.

Another trader noted that the New York-based cable operator's big deal "priced a lot tighter" than many in the market had been expecting, with the five-year deal having been originally talked at a bid level in the 155-160 bps area, rather than 153 bps.

The 10-year bonds had been talked in a 190 to 195 context, but then priced at 188 bps.

Bank CDS levels tighten up

Among the financials, a trader who watches the credit-default swaps market said that the cost of insuring holders of major-bank paper against a possible event of default tightened between 2 bps and 10 bps on the day, while CDS costs for big brokerage paper were some 3 bps to 5 bps tighter.

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