Brand, Oppenheimer, BevMo! price to cap $3.2 billion primary week; new Brand gains

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, June 16 – After several slow sessions, the high-yield primary sphere was respectably busy on Friday, churning out three new regularly scheduled forward calendar deals generating a total of $1.09 billion of dollar-denominated and fully junk-rated paper.

Brand Energy & Infrastructure Services, Inc., a provider of services to energy, industrial and infrastructure customers, had the big deal of the day – $700 million of eight-year notes. Traders said the new issue firmed smartly when it hit the aftermarket and was one of the busiest junk credits of the day.

Also pricing were a pair of smaller five-year deals – financial services company Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc.’s $200 million issue of unsecured notes, and beer, wine and liquor retailer Beverages & More, Inc.’s $190 million of secured paper. Both of those issues traded at or slightly above their issue pricea in thin aftermarket dealings.

Those three deals brought the week’s total of new dollar-denominated junk bonds to $3.2 billion, according to data compiled by Prospect News. That was only about half the volume seen last week.

Away from the new issues, traders saw considerable volume in bonds of supermarket operators such as Fresh Market, Albertsons and SuperValu, which all fell on news that retailing giant Amazon is buying grocer Whole Foods, potentially creating a powerhouse competitor.

Energy issues such as California Resources Corp., Halcon Resources Corp. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. ended lower, even though crude oil prices recovered slightly Friday.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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