Pinnacle Foods drives by, recent Microsemi deal stays strong; energy names fall, First Quantum off

By Paul Deckelman and Paul A. Harris

New York, Jan. 11 – The high yield market opened the new week on Monday by pricing a quickly shopped $350 million offering of eight-year notes for branded foods producer Pinnacle Foods Inc.,

The new issue was said to have been driven by a significant amount of reverse inquiry and was considerably oversubscribed. It was quoted modestly higher after pricing.

Last week’s $450 million offering of 7.25-year notes from high-tech components manufacturer Microsemi Corp. continued to trade well in the aftermarket on Monday, several points above the bonds’ issue price.

Away from the new deals, the continued slide in world crude oil prices – which hit their lowest levels since 2003-2004 – once again caused investors to flee oil and natural gas names like Chesapeake Energy Corp., California Resources Corp. and Oasis Petroleum Inc.

Each was off by multiple points in very active dealings.

Similar negative dynamics across commodity-based sectors led to losses in names like First Quantum Minerals Ltd., whose ratings were downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service on Friday.

Statistical measures of junk market performance were mixed for a second consecutive session on Monday. They had turned mixed on Friday versus where they had ended on Thursday, after having been down across the board for two straight sessions and alternating between higher and lower for several sessions before that. Monday was the third mixed session out of the last eight.

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