Primary heats up ahead of FOMC minutes release; Realty Income, Humana firm in aftermarket

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, Sept. 16 – Issuers piled in to the high-grade primary market as the Federal Reserve kicked off its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday.

The session saw more than $7.4 billion of paper price from issuers including Humana Inc., WPP plc, Royal Bank of Canada and ANZ Bank New Zealand Ltd.

Humana came to market with a $1.75 billion offering of senior notes, while WPP priced its upsized $750 million 10-year issue.

Details of ANZ’s and RBC’s offerings were unavailable at press time.

Finland's Municipality Finance plc sold $1 billion of three-year notes.

And NRW.Bank also came to market with a $1 billion offering.

The session saw PennantPark Investment Corp., Realty Income Corp. and Gulf Power Co. come to market with smaller-sized deals.

In the preferred market, American Financial Group Inc. priced $150 million of 40-year $25-par subordinated debentures, according to a market source.

So far, this week has seen roughly $11.25 billion of investment-grade paper price.

Sources are expecting a quiet primary for Wednesday’s session, as the market focuses on the release of the Federal Open Market Committee’s statement.

Realty Income’s 4.125% notes due 2026 tightened 3 basis points in the secondary market, a trader said.

Humana’s three-part offering of notes traded 1 bp to 2 bps better over the afternoon, according to a trader.

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