Whiting, Calumet drive-bys price, also VeriSign, Townsquare; existing Whitings off with deal

By Paul A. Harris and Paul Deckelman

New York, March 24 – The pace of activity in the high-yield primary arena picked up markedly on Tuesday, led by opportunistically timed and quickly shopped deals from energy operator Whiting Petroleum Corp. and specialty hydrocarbon products and fuels manufacturer Calumet Specialty Products Partners, LP, as well as regularly scheduled forward calendar offerings from internet domain-name and infrastructure security provider VeriSign Inc. and broadcaster Townsquare Media Inc., with VeriSign upsized and Townsquare downsized.

All told, those four single-tranche deals totaled some $1.875 billion of new dollar-denominated and fully junk-rated paper – well up from the $447 million that had priced in two tranches on Monday, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

The new VeriSign bonds were seen by traders to have moved up on heavy volume, while Whiting’s new deal was quoted trading below issue. Whiting’s existing bonds, meantime, sold off, some in heavy trading, in response to the new-deal news and in line with a big drop in the company’s shares following an equity offering and a concurrent convertibles placement.

Among recently priced issues, there was considerable secondary market activity in Monday’s new deal from Rice Energy Inc. and Thursday’s Rite Aid Corp. megadeal.

Statistical indicators of junk market performance were mixed on Tuesday versus their levels the session before, after having been higher over the previous two sessions.

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