WEEKLY UPDATE
The $17.5 billion of investment-grade corporate issuance that came to market last week tipped the annual total above the $80 billion level. The high-yield sector was also active with a further $2.5 billion of deals. In contrast to the early part of the year, the average rating of deals in the new issue market has dropped and the single-A and triple-B sectors were heavily represented with $8.6 billion and $5.4 billion of deals respectively. Supranational and sovereign issuance was light although we have seen over $77 billion of these deals so far this year. A notable feature of February's calendar has been an uptick in the volume of 30-year issuance with $5.7 billion of long end issuance in the last two weeks as companies look to lock in low absolute borrowing levels.
Analysis by CreditSights, Inc., an independent online credit research platform. Call (212) 340-3888 or visit www.CreditSights.com for more information.