UnitedHealth megadeal meets demand; Morgan Stanley mixed; Barclays paper tightens

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, July 20 – UnitedHealth Group Inc. sold a $10.5 billion behemoth bond to open the week on Monday in order to fund its planned acquisition of Catamaran Corp.

The eight-part deal attracted more than $40 billion of orders, with tranches pricing between 20 basis points to 25 bps tighter than initial price thoughts.

Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, priced $3 billion of senior notes following an earnings announcement earlier Monday that topped expectations.

The 10-year offering went straight to launch with a spread of Treasuries plus 175 bps following initial guidance in the 165 bps area over Treasuries.

Also on Monday, Synchrony Financial hit the primary with a $1 billion offering of 10-year bonds.

The deal’s order book was around two times oversubscribed.

Morgan Stanley’s existing notes were mixed in trading over the session.

Barclays plc’s 2.875% notes due 2020 tightened 7 bps in the secondary market.

Citigroup Inc.’s 3.3% senior notes due 2025 widened 7 bps from Friday.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade series 23 index headed out about ˝ bp weaker at a spread of 66 bps.

UnitedHealth priced $10.5 billion of senior notes (A3/A+/A-) in eight tranches, all at the tight end of price guidance in Monday’s session, according to informed sources.

The Minnetonka, Minn.-based diversified health company plans to use the proceeds from the offering to finance its acquisition of Catamaran.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.