This might turn out to be the most important issuance week of the year so far. In addition to the biggest corporate bond deal of the year (Weyerhaeuser's $5.5 billion multi-tranche offering), two of the most beleaguered names in the corporate bond market-Qwest and Sprint-accessed the market for $1.5 billion and $2.0 billion, respectively. (As of the time of this writing, the Sprint deal had yet to be priced so it is unclear whether the transaction will remain at $2.0 billion or increase in size.) The fact that these two companies could access the market in deals that were reportedly well oversubscribed has taken much of the fear of liquidity risk that has been hyped up in the financial press out of the market. While there are still important challenges ahead for these and the other high flyers of the 1990s, there is clearly also money available to these companies at a price. Total investment grade issuance for the week was $18.8 billion (not including Sprint), a 50% increase over the prior week. The emerging markets calendar was also very active, with Malaysia, Philippines and Brazil all pricing new deals that were increased in size from the original announcement.
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