Philip Morris, Statoil lead flurry of issuance; Southwest Airlines, Barclays firm

By Aleesia Forni and Cristal Cody

Virginia Beach, Nov. 3 – Philip Morris International Inc., Statoil ASA and Barclays plc were among the issuers pricing bonds during a frenzied primary session for the investment-grade bond market.

Statoil sold $3 billion of notes in five tranches, while Philip Morris sold $2 billion of senior notes in three tranches.

Barclays was also in the market on Monday with a $2 billion offering.

Discover Financial Services and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. each priced $500 million issues of senior notes.

Georgia Pacific LLC priced $2.1 billion of notes, though details of the sale were unavailable at press time.

New deals from Aetna Inc., Southwest Airlines Co. and Commonwealth Edison Co. rounded out the day’s primary activity.

In forward calendar news, Sweden announced price talk ahead of a planned offering of three-year notes.

In total, the high-grade market kicked off the new month on Monday with $11.4 billion of new issuance.

Around $30 billion of new issuance is expected for the first week of November.

Investment-grade credit spreads were mostly flat on the day, according to market sources.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade series 23 index was unchanged at a spread of 64 basis points.

In aftermarket trading, Southwest Airlines’ 2.75% notes due 2019 tightened 8 bps, a trader said.

Barclays’ 2.75% notes due 2019 firmed 6 bps, according to a trader.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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