American Tower, Air Lease, Entergy Louisiana, others in primary; World Bank sees heavy demand

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Nov. 17 – Investment-grade corporate and sovereign, supranational and agency supply remained strong over Tuesday’s session following more than $9 billion of issuance at the start of the week.

American Tower Corp. sold $1.7 billion of senior notes (Baa3/BBB-/BBB+) in three tranches.

The deal included long three-year notes, long seven-year notes and long 30-year notes.

Air Lease Corp. brought $1.5 billion of medium-term notes (/BBB/BBB/Kroll: A-) in two parts to the primary market.

The company priced a $750 million add-on to its 2.875% medium-term notes due Jan. 15, 2026 and sold a new $750 million tranche of 10-year notes.

Entergy Louisiana LLC, which priced $600 million of collateral trust mortgage bonds (A2/A/) in two tranches on Nov. 9, returned Tuesday with $1.1 billion of three-year collateral trust mortgage bonds (A2/A/).

A tranche of floating-rate bonds was dropped from the final offering.

In other corporate primary action, Brookfield Finance I (UK) plc sold $200 million of $25-par guaranteed perpetual subordinated notes (/BBB/BBB).

NRG Energy, Inc. marketed $1,465,000,000 of high-grade notes, as well as high-yield issues, on Tuesday following fixed income investor calls held Monday.

The Rule 144A and Regulation S high-grade portion includes five- and seven-year senior secured notes (Baa3/BBB-).

In addition, NRG special purpose vehicle Alexander Funding Trust is expected to privately place $900 million of three-year pre-capitalized trust securities (Baa3/BBB-).

Financial supply also is expected from HSBC Holdings plc, which offered fixed-to-floating-rate senior notes (A2/A-/A+) on Tuesday.

In other volume, British Airways Plc offered $1 billion of enhanced equipment trust certificates in two classes in a Rule 144A and Regulation S deal on Tuesday.

SSA supply

Looking at the SSA space, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or World Bank, priced $8 billion of global sustainable notes (Aaa/AAA/AAA) in two tranches during the session.

The offering included $3 billion of three-year notes and a $5 billion tranche of seven-year notes.

The deal attracted over 300 orders totaling more than $15 billion with the seven-year tranche setting a new dollar-denominated record SSA benchmark size.

Also on Tuesday, Italy (Baa3/BBB/BBB-) marketed a registered offering of global notes due Feb. 17, 2026.

In addition, BNG Bank NV (Aaa/AAA/AA+) planned to price $1 billion of five-year senior sustainable notes in a Rule 144A and Regulation S deal.

Investment-grade issuers sold more than $9 billion of bonds on Monday, led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s $2.5 billion two-part offering of three-year senior notes (A3/BBB+/A).

SSA supply on Monday also included Kommunalbanken AS (Aaa/AAA/)’s $500 million of two-year sustainable notes.

About $25 billion to $30 billion of high-grade supply is forecast for the last full week ahead of the Thanksgiving Day holiday and end of month, sources report.

Market tone was mixed over the day.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 35 index softened modestly to a spread of 52.68 basis points.

The iShares iBoxx Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF rose 0.32% to $136.64.

The PIMCO Investment Grade Corporate Bond Index improved 0.22% to $115.99.

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