Featured Articles

Qwest Corporation, a division of CenturyLink, is offering a investment grade note.This issue is rated low investment grade and carries a coupon of 6.875%.  This coupon is 3/4% above the coupon that was necessary to sell the notes issued in May, 2013.It is noted that these notes do not mature until 2054--which is a non starter for us since we…

Date Issued   9/25/2014Shares Issued   20,000,000      Overallotment Shares  3,000,000S&P Rating  BBB-   Moodys Rating   Baa3LOW INVESTMENT GRADESecurity Ticker Symbol   CTVMarket Traded ON   NYSEInterest Payment Paid on the 1st of January, April, July and October beginning on 01/02/2015Quarterly Interest   .43   Annual Interest   1.719Securities may be redeemed, at the issuers option, as early as 10/01/2019 for a redemption price of…

Every week for the last 4 weeks we have written about the coming recession in Asia and Europe as well as what we believed was a weaker housing market than was being perceived by the 'crowd'.  Only today did market decide to start worrying about the obvious.  This, of course, is why markets are unpredictable---good is bad and bad is…

Scorpio Bulkers (ticker:SALT), a Norwegian dry bulk ship owner (although incorporated in the Marshall Islands), has announced an offering of Senior Notes.  The notes have a 7.50% coupon and have a maturity of 2019.  They are optionally redeemable in 2016.Scorpio is a new company and has a relatively modest sized fleet--15 ships--that has a HUGE new build program underway.  This…

Date Issued 9/22/2014    Notes Issued  2,600,000   Overallotment Notes 390,000 S&P Rating   NR   Moodys Rating   NRSecurity Ticker Symbol   SLTBMarket Traded ON   NYSEInterest Payment Paid on the 15th of March, June, September and December beginning on 12/15/2014Quarterly Interest   .469   Annual Interest   1.875Securities may be redeemed prior to maturity, at the issuers option on or after 9/15/2016 at par plus…