The US investment-grade primary is revving up, with at least six issues slated for sale today, including a seven-part M&A offering.
At least one offering may make it into the high-yield primary today, although pricing specifics were still not announced yet in this morning's session.
Over in the ECM arena, as the dust settles in the wake of the Boeing stock sale earlier this week, a large pool of fees is expected to be paid out to the banks in the syndicate that underwrote the issues. The four active bookrunners on the offering, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan, are taking a combined almost 80% of those fees, a banker involved in the offering said.
Yesterday's US Treasury seven-year note auction reversed the fortunes of a weakening bond market, with rising yields reversing after the sale.
"The 7-yr auction saw the highest bid-to-cover ratio since 2020, with bonds issued -2.0bps below the when-issued yield," Deutsche Bank Research said in a report today. "So an encouraging sign on the demand for Treasuries after lackluster 2yr and 5yr auctions the previous day."
On Friday the October jobs report is due out and markets will have a chance to examine the details for signs of strength or weakness in the economy.
"We'll see if we can derive much signal from payrolls on Friday given all the recent storms and strikes," Deutsche Bank said.
Some important economic data releases scheduled for today include the ADP Employment report and the first look at US Q3 GDP. Yesterday's JOLTS report showed job openings fell to their lowest level since January 2021, at 7.443m versus 8m expected, Deutsche Bank said.
Today saw a solid round of data that has reinforced the perception that the real economy remains on solid footing, BMO said in a report.
In the IG primary yesterday, four offerings were priced totaling US$3.1bn, lifting weekly IG volume to US$6.9bn and October IG issuance to US$74.45bn, according to IFR data. The average new issue concession for yesterday's IG offerings was 3.0bp and the order book was 2.59x subscribed, according to the data.
In the HY primary, two issues were priced totaling US$2.25bn, pushing October HY supply to US$21.88bn, according to IFR.
The average IG bond spread was unchanged at 84bp on Tuesday and the HY bond spread narrowed by 3bp to 285bp, according to ICE BofA data. US yields across asset classes yesterday were mixed.
"IG index spreads were unchanged yesterday to remain 1bp off the recent lows, and risk tone is similarly neutral in early trading this morning," BMO said.
HIGH GRADE
The US investment-grade bond market is expected to get busy today, as investors have their choice of large multi-tranche deals.
Waste Management and Marsh & McLennan are both bringing M&A-related bond offerings to market. Waste Management is issuing a five-part bond to pay down a drawn term loan used to back its US$7.2bn acquisition of Stericycle, and Marsh & McLennan is selling a seven-part transaction to fund the US$7.75bn cash payment for McGriff Insurance Services.
CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric is issuing a US$500m 10-year opco bond, a day after the utility's holding company printed a US$500m junior subordinated note.
UK financial services company Marex Group announced an offering for a five-year senior unsecured bond. Meanwhile, railcar provider TTX announced a US$350m offering for a 10-year senior unsecured note.
Tobacco company Philip Morris International is issuing a multi-tranche senior unsecured bond, which includes three, five, seven and 10-year tranches.
LEVERAGE/HIGH YIELD
Great Canadian Gaming Corporation is the sole borrower left in the pipeline on Wednesday after two issuers raised US$2.25bn yesterday.
The company, which operates gaming and entertainment facilities in Canada, is marketing a US$400m five-year non-call two offering.
Proceeds will be used to redeem its 4.875% senior secured due 2026 and repay borrowings under a term loan B.
The 6.375% 2030s and 6.625% 2032s issued by Newell Brands on Tuesday were both trading at a dollar price of 100.675 this morning after pricing yesterday at par.
STRUCTURED FINANCE
The asset-backed primary will hum along today after nine issuers together raised nearly US$5bn yesterday.
At least five more offerings are slated for sale by Friday. The largest of the remaining deals is a US$850m music royalty deal from Blackstone's Hipgnosis. Another notable offering is a US$500m solar securitization from Tesla, which marks the first-ever Triple A rated deal for this type of renewable energy financing.
Other asset-backed issues on the docket include a US$310.1m sports equipment deal from Octane; a US$300m credit card offering from Mission Lane and a US$200m subprime auto securitization from Pagaya.
Meanwhile, the CMBS market has been busy, with three single-asset single-borrower issues bringing in over US$1.8bn yesterday. The sector will remain lively with three multiple-loan conduit deals, totaling over US$2bn, set to price this week.
Elsewhere, the residential mortgage space saw an active session on Tuesday when half a dozen issuers raised more than US$1.9bn. There are at least three more RMBS issues expected to price this week, including a US$630.1m single-family rental deal from Blackstone's Tricon.
LATAM
Brazil's Globo Comunicacao has completed the purchase of US$200m of its 4.875% senior notes due 2030 and 5.5% sustainability-linked senior notes due 2032. The tender offer expired yesterday. Itau was sole dealer manager on the transaction.
EQUITIES
Bankers returned to more modest levels of ECM activity on Tuesday after the euphoria of Boeing’s historic equity raise, which will likely to top US$24bn assuming the exercise of overallotment options.
Small business marketing software firm Thryv funded its US$80m cash purchase of Infusion Software with proceeds from an upsized overnight stock sale of the same size.
Sole bookrunner RBC Capital Markets wall-crossed investors for a US$75m raise before pricing 5.7m shares at US$14, the bottom of the US$14.00–$15.00 range and a 23.7% discount to the closing price of US$18.34.
Life science bankers also priced one-day marketed follow-ons from EyePoint Pharmaceuticals (US$140m), Procept BioRobotics (US$175m) and Vera Therapeutics (US$300m) late Tuesday.
In the sole live follow-on, Harmony Biosciences backers are selling US$332m of their holdings in a rare all-secondary offering out of the biotech sector.
Sole bookrunner JP Morgan is marketing the sale of 8m shares through Wednesday's session for pricing after the close.
Valor Equity Partners and Marshman Fund Trust are each selling 4m shares, freeing up the equivalent of 18 days’ trading volume for new investors.
Elsewhere, filings late Tuesday confirmed the banks behind aircraft maker Boeing’s up to US$24.3bn equity raise earlier this week would collect at least US$343m in fees from the exercise, the year’s biggest fee event in global ECM.
The fee split comprises US$261.4m for Boeing's US$16.1bn common stock sale and US$81.3m for the US$5bn mandatory convertible offering.
The banks would collect roughly another US$50m with the exercise of the greenshoes on both offerings. According to bankers, Boeing fully intends to do so to raise another US$3.2bn (for US$24.3bn in total).
The top four banks on the offerings, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan, each took 19.5% of the economics, sharing nearly 80% of the fees between them.