The recent rush of issuance continued apace this week with $11.5 billion of investment-grade and almost $2 billion of high-yield issuance coming to market. The breakdown of issuers by rating category substantially skewed by the jumbo $4 billion two-tranche deal launched by GE Capital Corp., which is the largest corporate issue since the finance company tapped the market with a mega $6 billion deal in May of this year. The week also saw a large number of sizeable sovereign and supra deals which is causing both the average deal size and the average rating of issued deals to rise slightly. Nevertheless, risk appetite remains evident and the high-yield market is still providing a healthy pace of financing even though both high-yield and investment-grade spreads have weakened this week, partially to accommodate the ongoing heavy level of supply.
Analysis by CreditSights, Inc., an independent online credit research platform. Call (212) 340-3888 or visit www.CreditSights.com for more information.