Big deals lead strong start to the week for IG corporate issuance

Ecolab and Hewlett-Packard have led a strong start to the week for corporate debt issuance, hitting the market with deals of $3.25 billion and $3 billion respectively. Deals worth over $13 billion have already been placed in the first two days of the week. This compares favourably to last week, which saw deals of only $19 billion in total.  

Hewlett Packard’s $3 billion deal was the company's first offering since it had its rating downgraded by Standard & Poor's at the end of November from A to BBB+. The deal consisted of three tranches; a $650 million three year bond, an $850 million five-year tranche and a $1.5 billion 10-year portion, which fetched coupons of 2.63%, 3.3% and 4.65% respectively. This follows a deal of over $4 billion which priced in September.  

Ecolab, a wide reaching company, predominantly concerned with cleaning and sanitation services, issued a four tranche deal totaling $3.25 billion on Monday in order to acquire rival Nalco.  This consisted of a $500 million three year bond, $1.5 billion of five-year and ten-year notes and a $750 million 20-year tranche, which came with coupons of 2.375%, 3%, 4.35% and 5.5% respectively.

The extra leverage lead S&P to downgrade Ecolab from A to BBB+.

Details can be found on issuer tracker.