Manitowoc brings upsized 5.5-year secured deal, new food service bonds busy; market lower

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, Feb. 8 – The Manitowoc Co. Inc. priced its second junk bond deal in as many days on Monday, with high yield syndicate sources reporting that the maker of cranes and other industrial lifting machinery did an upsized $260 million of 5.5-year secured notes.

However, unlike other recently priced new issues – including Friday’s offering from the company’s Manitowoc Food Service Inc. unit – Monday’s deal priced at a considerable discount to par, even with a relatively generous coupon to begin with. Additionally, the tenor was shortened from the eight years originally shopped around, and covenant changes had to be made.

Traders meantime saw heavy activity in the new food service bonds that had priced on Friday. They were down from initial trading levels, in line with an overall junk market retreat, which in turn took its cue from sagging equities.

Other recent new deals were also actively traded – Thursday’s offering from Acadia Healthcare Co. Inc. and from Charter Communications, Inc. They too were easier versus last week’s closing levels.

Away from the new deals, Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s bonds were under stiff pressure on the news that the oil and natural gas company had hired restructuring advisers, touching off speculation that it might be considering a bankruptcy filing, which Chesapeake strenuously denied.

Statistical measures of junk market performance turned lower across the board Monday, after having been mixed over the previous three sessions. It was the third lower session in the last six trading days.

© 2015 Prospect News.
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