The cost of insuring debt from General Motors' financing arm against default fell on Thursday, after a newspaper report raised hopes the automaker was nearing a sale of a majority stake in the unit.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal said GM was moving closer to sealing a deal to sell a majority stake in General Motors Acceptance Corp (GMAC) to an investor group lead by Cerberus Capital Management, and had settled upon the broad structure of an agreement.
GM has been trying to sell a majority stake in GMAC since last October, hoping that a sale would restore GMAC's investment grade credit rating.
"It's the same story that's come up before, but ... the fact it's been repeated several times now over the last few weeks means that we are actually getting closer to the day where it all goes through," a dealer in London said.
Five-year credit default swaps on GMAC fell some 15 basis points, to be bid at 420 basis points, the dealer said, after falling earlier to as low as 410 basis points. That price means it costs 420,000 euros a year to insure 10 million euros of the company's debt against default.
The report overshadowed an earlier move by Moody's Investors Service, which on Wednesday downgraded GM for the third time since August, citing GM's disclosure that accounting restatements may affect access to a $5.6 billion standby credit facility.
Vinci's debt also rallied after Standard & Poor's removed its BBB+ credit rating on the French construction group from Creditwatch Negative, lifting the threat that Vinci's recently issued hybrid bond, which is rated two notches lower at BBB-, would fall to "junk".
The spread on Vinci's hybrid bond tightened some 6 basis points, bid at 282 basis points, a second trader said.
The cost of default protection on Invensys fell, on continued speculation the UK engineering group might receive a bid from Germany's Siemens.
Five-year credit default swaps traded 30 basis points tighter at 270 basis points, a third trader said. The contracts have dropped more than 100 basis points this week.
Default swaps on Dutch market research firm VNU also maintained an early rally, sparking when the Financial Times newspaper reported nearly half of VNU shareholders intended to reject a buyout offer from a group of private equity firms.
Five-year credit default swaps on VNU stood 20 basis points lower, bid at 160 basis points, another trader said.
The FTSE Euro Corporate Bond Index showed investment-grade corporate bonds in euros yielding an average 48.4 basis points more than similarly dated government bonds at 1459 GMT, 0.2 basis points lower on the day.
In the primary market, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the financing arm of the European Union, sold a 5 billion euro, five-year bond, with a dearth of government bond sales at this maturity helping it to build a 7 billion euro order book.
Rising interest rates - which push up bond yields, meaning investors can meet yield targets through buying shorter-dated paper - also helped the EIB, it said.
HSBC, ING, Lehman Brothers and Nomura managed the deal.
The bond pays a coupon of 3.625 percent, and was sold to yield 9 basis points under swaps, in the middle of earlier guidance for a spread of swaps minus 8 to 10 basis points.
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