US DOLLARS

摘要

The summer lull finally had an impact on the US high-grade market at the end of what was still a decent week, in which 31 tranches of bonds were issued for a total US$16.5bn. New-issue demand remained more price-sensitive throughout the week and was clearly not over the top, as seen earlier this year. "Investors are expecting a big calendar in September, so they are being selective now. They also want to be compensated for additional risk in today's geopolitical climate," said a syndicate manager. The bookbuilding process was slow-moving last week and the same theme played out with split-rated expedia, which was out with a US$500m 10-year bond issue. The bonds finally priced at Treasuries plus 215bp versus IPTs of low 200s, on books of US$1.3bn. Part of the reason for this could have been credit-specific. "While earnings growth has been robust, free cashflow generation has been volatile. Debt has remained stable over the past three years, but the company's free cashflow/debt has ranged from 24% to 55% during that same period," said Morningstar.