Search results for

Merrill Lynch rounded off an impressive few weeks in the equity capital markets with the completion of the £300m secondary share sale for specialty pharmaceuticals company Galen on Wednesday. The deal, which comprised a rights issue and an international offering, was priced at 755p, a mere 0.33% discount to Tuesday's closing price of 757.5p. The international offering was oversubscribed by 1.6 times.

Merrill Lynch rounded off an impressive few weeks in the equity capital markets with the completion of the £300m secondary share sale for specialty pharmaceuticals company Galen on Wednesday. The deal, which comprised a rights issue and an international offering, was priced at 755p, a mere 0.33% discount to Tuesday's closing price of 757.5p. The international offering was oversubscribed by 1.6 times.

General Healthcare Group, the UK's leading provider of private hospitals, yesterday (Thursday) launched its £975m whole business securitisation via Morgan Stanley. The deal will refinance a £906m bridge loan extended by Morgan Stanley last September to back the company's acquisition by venture capital house BC Partners. It paid £1.29bn for the business from its rival Cinven.

Barclays Capital has been added as a dealer to Parkland Finance Corporation's euro3 billion ($2.63 billion) Euro-CP programme.

Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich has upped the limit off its Euro-MTN programme to euro3 billion ($2.63 billion) from euro2 billion.

Reed Elsevier plc, the international science publishing house, brought a three tranche dollar- and euro-denominated global on Wednesday. The issue consisted of a $550m 6.75% 10 year tranche, a $550m 6.125% five year piece and a Eu500m 5.75% seven year portion. The lead managers were Lehman Brothers, Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg. Before the issue was priced, the company had confirmed that the euro-denominated tranche would be swapped back to dollars. However, much speculation surrounded the fate of the two dollar tranches in the run-up to launch. In the event, Reed Elsevier chose to swap the five year tranche to floating dollars, keeping the 10 year tranche in fixed dollars and swapping the euro tranche into a combination of floating and fixed dollars, according to the company treasurer.

RTL Group has added ING Bank as a dealer to its euro1 billion ($877.99 million) Euro-CP programme.

Market report Compiled by Richard Favis, RBC DS Global Markets, Johannesburg

* Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG Rating: Aa3/A+/AA-

TVA, the US government owned Tennessee Valley power utility, was able to capitalise on a spring roadshow in Japan this week with an opportunistic $1bn three year transaction through bookrunners Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The rarity value of the new bonds meant that they traded flat to Freddie Mac's July 2004 Reference Note, which at $6bn trumps TVA for liquidity.

Globals * Credit Suisse First Boston Corp

US dollar notes made up over 40% of all trades that went through the market yesterday. Only eight trades being closed, but there were some big volumes from the Republic of Lebanon, which issued a $600 million seven-year trade. Despite its size, this trade was non-syndicated and pays interest semi-annually. Federal Home Loans Bank issued $500 million one-year trade that pays interest quarterly. Salomon Smith Barney led two US dollar trades today: a $110 million five-year note for Walt Disney that pays a final coupon of 5.25%, and a $3.30 million six-year note for Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat Luxembourg, paying a final coupon of 8%. The longest-dated US dollar trade came from BNP Paribas. The $10 million note goes out to 2011, pays interest annually and a final coupon of 6.62%.