Morning Commentary: Duke Energy $25-par notes on tap; Qwest, Ladenburg Thalmann lower

By James McCandless

San Antonio, Sept. 11 – Duke Energy Corp. plans to price a $200 million offering of $25-par junior subordinated debentures due Sept. 15, 2078 with a coupon in the area of 5.75%, a market source said.

The deal was announced Tuesday morning.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, RBC Capital Markets, LLC and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC are the joint bookrunners.

Meanwhile, in secondary trading, Qwest Corp.’s $25-par notes were seen declining in early trading, continuing to give back some of the gains that followed the company’s Aug. 20 redemption notice for $1.34 billion in total of its 7.5% notes due 2051, two series of 7% notes due 2052 and 7.25% debentures due 2035.

Qwest’s existing 6.5% notes due 2056 (NYSE: CTBB) were down 2 cents to $23.92 on volume of about 88,000 notes.

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc.’s 8% series A cumulative redeemable preferred stock opened lower.

On Monday, news surfaced that the Securities and Exchange Commission had filed a lawsuit against board chairman Phillip Frost, alleging his involvement in a “pump-and-dump” penny stock scheme that accumulated more than $27 million in unlawful stock sales.

The preferreds (NYSE: LTSPrA) were down 80 cents to $23.21 with about 55,000 shares trading.

The Wells Fargo Hybrid & Preferred Securities Financial index was down 0.06% in early trading after gaining 0.33% on Monday.

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