WEEK OF NOV. 14

SONIC AUTOMOTIVE INC. (Symbol: SAH) $150 million of 10-year convertible senior subordinated notes; expected to price Thursday after the close; price talk for coupon of 3.75% to 4.25%, up 20% to 25%; later price talk for coupon seen at 4.5%; joint bookrunners Banc of America Securities LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co.; non-callable for five years, with a put in year five; greenshoe of $10 million; proceeds to repay a portion of its revolving credit facility, which may be re-borrowed, and for general corporate purposes, including acquisitions; Charlotte, N.C., automotive retailer.

COMPUCREDIT CORP. (CCRT) $300 million of 30-year convertibles in a bought, overnight deal; price talk 5.875%, up 20% to 25%; Bear, Stearns & Co.; greenshoe of $50 million; non-callable for 3.25 years, no investor puts; related to the offering, 30-year share lending agreement with Bear, Stearns for up to 6.686 million shares; proceeds to fund acquisitions and for general corporate and working capital purposes; Atlanta-based consumer credit company.

ON THE HORIZON

NRG ENERGY INC. (Symbol: NRG): Mandatory convertible preferreds expected to total $500 million, with concurrent offerings of $1 billion equity and $2.5 billion debt, to finance roughly $4 billion of its $5.8 billion acquisition of Texas Genco LLC; Texas Genco owners may also receive as much as $400 million preferred stock; Princeton, N.J.-based NRG has operations in the southeastern, western and northeastern states, while Texas Genco has operations in eastern Texas; the transaction is expected to close first-quarter 2006.

DRS TECHNOLOGIES INC. (Symbol: DRS): $250 million senior subordinated convertible notes; as part of a mix of borrowings to help fund its acquisition of Engineered Support Systems Inc. (ESSI); the other financings include $124.7 million under a new revolving credit facility, $200 million from an expanded existing term loan and $700 million of new high-yield debt; DRS is a Parsippany, N.J.-based provider of technology products and services to defense, government intelligence and commercial customers. ESSI is a St. Louis-based diversified supplier of integrated military electronics, support equipment and technical services.

SPANSION INC. (Symbol: SPSN): $200 million mandatory convertible preferred stock; Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston (joint books), JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investment Bank; also selling initial public offering of 35.29 million shares of common stock and $400 million of senior unsecured notes; part of sale by joint owners Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Fujitsu Ltd.; Sunnyvale, Calif., maker of flash memory.

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