CAM High Yield Weekly Insights

Fund Flows & Issuance: According to Wells Fargo, flows week to date were $0.5 billion and year to date flows stand at -$2.7 billion. New issuance for the week was $2.4 billion and year to date HY is at $77.8 billion.

(Bloomberg) Huntsman Eyes Merger After Spinoff of Titanium-Dioxide Unit

• Huntsman Corp. is considering a major merger after the planned spinoff of its paint-pigments business, Chairman Jon Huntsman Sr. said.
• “We are looking seriously at the possibility of doing a merger or doing something that would double or triple our revenues,” Huntsman, 79, said Tuesday after speaking at a breakfast during an AFPM chemical conference in San Antonio. The company wants to “expand our horizons” to increase shareholder value, he said.
• Seven or eight specialty chemical companies would make suitable business partners with Huntsman, some of which have already been in contact about a potential merger, the chairman said without naming them. Huntsman’s annual revenue will drop to $4.5 billion to $5 billion and profit margins will be higher after the midyear spinoff of the titanium-dioxide unit, which will be named Venator, Huntsman said.

(Business Wire) B&G Foods Announces Public Offering of Senior Notes

• B&G Foods intends to use the proceeds of the offering to repay all of the outstanding borrowings under B&G Foods’ revolving credit facility and all of the outstanding amounts due in respect of B&G Foods’ tranche A term loans, and to pay related fees and expenses. B&G Foods intends to use any remaining net proceeds for general corporate purposes, which could include, among other things, repayment of other long term debt or possible acquisitions.
• The $500.0 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2025 priced at $100 with a 5.25% coupon

(Reuters) Trump, conservatives try to put aside bitterness to cut tax deal

• Raw feelings and mistrust could pose an obstacle to President Donald Trump and hard-line conservative lawmakers in his Republican Party as they seek to rebound from defeat on healthcare legislation by launching into an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.
• Trump has accused the Freedom Caucus lawmakers of snatching a “defeat from the jaws of victory” with their rejection of the White House-backed healthcare bill to replace President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare reform bill.
• In interviews with 10 of the roughly three dozen House Freedom Caucus members, the lawmakers said they were eager to put aside tensions over the healthcare debacle and seek common ground on tax reform.
• But there is no consensus, even within the conservative faction, on details of a tax-reform bill, with some members open to discussing ideas such as the border tax plan supported by House leaders and others opposed to it.

(CNBC) Homebuilders struggle to fill jobs

• Homes in Denver take about two months longer than normal to build, and, in some cases, contractors are doubling their wages just to keep workers from skipping to the next site.
• “The labor shortage has basically grown and accelerated. It’s the top challenge in the building industry right now,” said Rob Dietz, chief economist with the National Association of Home Builders.
• “Because the building industry is highly decentralized you do see poaching. There are situations where you can recruit a worker, and they can work for you for a quarter or two, and then they’re working for another subcontractor down the road,” Dietz said.
• Wages in the residential building industry are growing at twice the rate of wages in the overall economy. Labor is the top concern among the nation’s builders, according to an NAHB survey, and worry over its cost and availability is growing.

(Multichannel News) Spectrum Auction Ends with a Total Take of $19.8B

• “Today’s conclusion of the assignment phase formally brings all bidding activity in this multi-phase auction to a close,” said Gary Epstein, chair of the FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force. “The incentive auction has required unprecedented commitment from bidders as well as Commission staff, who from the moment that broadcasters made their initial commitments to the final bids processed this afternoon have worked each day to assist bidders and ensure a fair and successful auction. We are excited to share the results of the reverse and forward auctions and extensive information about the post-auction transition in the next few weeks.”
• That is when the FCC will announce which stations and forward auction bidders got what and start the clock on the 39-month repack of TV stations and turning over the licenses for the reclaimed broadcast spectrum—84 MHz minus 14 MHz for unlicensed wireless—to those forward auction bidders.
• The day after the mid-April release of the Auction Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice, which will identify the winning TV station bidders, the FCC will release “complete forward auction round-by-round results, including bidder identities.”