US wine and spirits company Canandaigua Brands this week sold £80m of nine year bonds at an aggressive 8.625% yield, vindicating the Ba2/BB rated borrower's strategy of marketing itself as a cross-over credit. The bond issue, which was sole lead managed by Barclays Capital, followed on from a £75m financing led by JP Morgan in November 1999. But while both transactions refinanced bank debt raised by Canandaigua for its acquisition of UK drinks company Matthew Clark, last year's deal was executed in a single day and sold to only high yield investors.
May 12, 2000