A $5 million piece of Charter Communications' bank debt traded in the Street at 99 3/8 on the heels of talks of a $300 million add-on from J.P. Morgan Chase. Charter has a deal to acquire AT&T Broadband networks. Early in the year, Charter traded into the 99 5/8 range, as dealers noted the company's insulation from economic swings (LMW, 1/28). A dealer said the term "B" add-on will not change pricing, which pushed levels a bit lower. "In a market already loaded with paper from Charter and Nextel Communications, they're just going to throw in more paper, not add anything special. Normally, they increase the pricing to make add-on more liquid," he said. The add-on is rated BB+, priced at LIBOR plus 21/2 %, and J.P. Morgan Chase is the sole book runner.
Charter has a $4.1 billion deal, which expires in 2007. It is priced at 175 basis points over LIBOR, according to Capital DATA Loanware. J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, FleetBoston Financial, TD Securities and Credit Lyonnais are the lead arrangers.