High-grade volume heavy; Upjohn, NetApp, GM, Schlumberger in primary; Ford Foundation on tap

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., June 17 – Investment-grade supply continued at a rapid-fire pace over Wednesday’s session with more than a dozen issuers offering bonds.

NetApp Inc. (Baa2/BBB+/) sold $2 billion of senior notes in three tranches.

General Motors Financial Co., Inc. priced $2 billion of senior notes (Baa3/BBB/BBB-) in two tranches.

Schlumberger Investment SA came by with $900 million of 10-year senior notes (A2/A/).

Air Lease Corp. sold $850 million of five-year medium-term notes (/BBB/BBB/Kroll: A-).

Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. subsidiaries GLP Capital, LP and GLP Financing II, Inc. priced $500 million of senior notes due Jan. 15, 2031 (Ba1/BBB-/BBB-) in a deal upsized from $300 million.

Amdocs Ltd. priced $650 million of 10-year senior notes (Baa2/BBB/) during the session.

Essex Portfolio, LP priced a $150 million tap of its 2.65% guaranteed senior notes due March 15, 2032 (Baa1/BBB+/BBB+) on Wednesday.

Swedish Export Credit Corp. brought a $100 million reopening of its 1.75% medium-term global notes due Dec. 12, 2023 to the primary market.

Idaho Power Co. priced $80 million of 10-year first mortgage bonds (A1/A-/) on Wednesday.

In other supply, Discover Financial Services, Inc. priced $500 million of fixed-rate reset non-cumulative preferred stock.

Upjohn Inc. was marketing a six-tranche offering of senior notes (Baa3/BBB-/BBB) anticipated to total about $12 billion.

Other companies marketing issues on Wednesday included Barclays plc, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, BP Capital Markets plc, Standard Chartered plc, New York Life Global Funding, Pacific Life Insurance Co. and Cooperatieve Rabobank UA.

More than $35 billion of reported high-grade issues have priced week to date, including Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Bank of America Corp. and Merck & Co., Inc. on Tuesday.

Coming up, Ford Foundation plans to price a $1 billion two-tranche offering of long-dated taxable social bonds (Aaa/AAA/) on Thursday.

About $20 billion to as much as $40 billion of high-grade supply is expected by market participants over the week.

High-grade credit spreads softened on Wednesday after tightening about 10 basis points over the previous two sessions.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 33 index eased about 1.5 bps over the day to a spread of 70.5 bps.

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