Entergy, DuPont, Alleghany, Brighthouse, Duke, Japan Bank, NIB price; credit spreads ease

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., May 13 – Investment-grade issuers brought corporate and sovereign, supranational and agency supply to the primary market on Wednesday.

Entergy Corp. brought $1.2 billion of senior notes (Baa2/BBB/) in two tranches after the company postponed a two-part deal on March 17.

E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co., doing business as Corteva Agriscience, priced $1 billion of senior notes (A3/A-/A) in two parts.

Alleghany Corp. sold $500 million of 10-year notes (Baa1/BBB+/) on Wednesday in an offering upsized from $400 million.

Brighthouse Financial Inc. priced $500 million of 10-year senior notes (Baa3/BBB+/BBB) on top of talk.

Duke Energy Corp. priced $500 million of 10-year senior notes (Baa1/BBB+/BBB+) better than initial guidance.

Stifel Financial Corp. priced $400 million of 10-year senior notes (/BBB-/BBB) in an offering increased from $300 million.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. offered five tranches of senior notes (A3/A+/A-) during the session.

The deal includes long five-year notes with initial talk at the Treasuries plus 135 basis points area, 10-year notes talked at the 170 bps area, 20-year notes talked at the 185 bps area, 20-year notes talked at the 195 bps spread area and 30-year notes talked at the 215 bps area.

Regions Financial Corp. also marketed five-year senior notes (Baa2/BBB+/BBB+) that had initial price guidance in the Treasuries plus 235 bps area.

In addition on Wednesday, Verizon Communications Inc. offered two tranches of registered Canadian dollar-denominated notes after pricing €2.15 billion of euro-denominated notes in two parts on Tuesday.

In SSA activity, Japan Bank for International Cooperation priced $2 billion of three-year guaranteed bonds (A1/A+/) on Wednesday tighter than guidance.

Nordic Investment Bank upsized its offering of three-year global notes (Aaa/AAA/) to $1.5 billion from $1 billion.

Also, the Republic of Finland (Aa1/AA+/AA+) launched a $1.5 billion offering of 10-year notes at mid-swaps plus 30 bps.

In other action on Wednesday, Unum Group (Baa3/BBB/BBB) held fixed income investor calls for a potential offering of senior notes, sources said.

High-grade issuers have priced more than $48 billion of corporate and SSA bonds week to date.

About $75 billion to as much as $100 billion of issuance is expected this week.

The Markit CDX North American Investment Grade 33 index eased more than 5 bps to close the day at a spread of 96.85 bps.

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