By Art Patnaude
The European primary bond market took a breather Friday, as
issuers coasted on the last day of the month after a busy week of
opportunistic debt sales, despite relatively positive secondary
markets.
Spanish state-owned issuer Instituto de Credito Oficial decided
to increase the size of an existing five-year bond, following a
solid showing from peer Fondo de Amortizacion del Deficit Electrico
Thursday.
"Spanish agencies are benefiting from the recent rally in the
periphery," said a SSA syndicate banker not working on the
deal.
In corporates, most of the pipeline was pushed out by Thursday
after about 8 billion euros ($10.37 billion) worth of issuance this
week. The only investment-grade company in the market was Norwegian
telecommunications company Telenor ASA (TEL.OS). However, this deal
was always likely to price Friday, as it followed the company's
successful tender operation that closed Thursday, a banker working
on the deal said.
"Equities are up, credit is tighter...the stability makes it a
fine day to do a deal," the banker said. "But anyone who was
looking to go this week already did."
Market participants said that while the market was likely to
wind down before the holiday season in December, opportunistic
borrowers were still likely to keep the primary market active into
next week.
CDS:
iTraxx Europe index: Unchanged at 122 bps
iTraxx Crossover index: Unchanged at 465 bps
NEW ISSUES:
Spanish state-owned business support group ICO sold EUR500
million of its 4.875% bond maturing July 2017, one of the banks
running the deal said Friday. The bond priced at 60 basis points
over the 5.5% July 2017 Spanish government bond. The outstanding
amount of the bond will now be EUR1.6 billion.
Telenor ASA (TEL.OS) planned to sell a benchmark-size,
euro-denominated, 12-year bond, one of the banks running the deal
said Friday. Suggested pricing was 85-90 basis points over
midswaps.
German cable company Unitymedia was expected to price its euro-
and dollar-denominated high-yield bonds. The bond will have a
maturity of 10 years.
--Ben Edwards, Sarka Halas and Serena Ruffoni contributed to
this report.
Write to Art Patnaude at art.patnaude@dowjones.com