European Banks Led US Investment-Grade Bond Spree Wednesday

Financial institutions, including several foreign banks, led at least 10 companies tapping the US investment-grade primary market Wednesday, one day after both volume and deal count hit yearly highs.

(Bloomberg) — Financial institutions, including several foreign banks, led at least 10 companies tapping the US investment-grade primary market Wednesday, one day after both volume and deal count hit yearly highs.

Barclays Plc sold $4.5 billion of senior unsecured bonds in four parts, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the details are private. The longest-dated portion of the offering — an 11-year fixed-to-floating rate note — yields 2.4 percentage points over Treasuries after initial pricing discussions of around 2.65 percentage points.  

Barcelona-based CaixaBank SA was also in the market with a $2 billion two-part offering of senior non-preferred notes, according to a person familiar with the matter. The longest-dated portion of the offering — an 11-year fixed-rate note which isn’t callable for 10 years — yields 2.55 percentage points over Treasuries after initial pricing discussions of about 2.7 percentage points. 

Meanwhile, Irish lender AIB Group Plc sold $1 billion of six-year fixed-to-floating rate notes, which aren’t callable for five years. The offering yielded 2.17 percentage points over Treasuries after initial pricing discussions of 2.45 percentage points. 

The raise marks AIB’s second MREL issuance this year, a representative for the firm said, referring to the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities applied to European Union banks.

Wednesday’s $14.4 billion deluge came after 20 borrowers sold $36 billion of fresh debt Tuesday, making it the busiest session in terms of deals and daily supply so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. As a result, the high-grade market has already met consensus forecasts of around $50 billion of issuance for the week.

“We’re anticipating a very active financial calendar in September,” said Ray Zeek, who spearheads US regional bank issuance and execution at Barclays. “We will likely see banks that have taken advantage of cross currency opportunities year to date or have been patiently awaiting regulatory proposals to closely evaluate the USD market this fall.”

Toyota Motor Credit Corp., Idaho Power Co., Black Hills Corp., Nestle Holdings Inc., Nippon Life Insurance Co., GATX Corp., and Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc. were also in the market Wednesday.

Barclays, Toyota, Marsh & McLennan and Nestle declined to comment, while the other issuers did not respond to requests for comment.  

–With assistance from Allan Lopez.

(Updates with deal pricing details.)

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