Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF ▼ -4,88% 8,18)’s bonds fell to a low after the company canceled an offer to buy back some of its notes and delayed a refinancing plan amid higher borrowing costs.
The miner’s $800 million of 6.25 percent notes due October 2040 dropped 5.4 cents to 58 cents on the dollar at 9:01 a.m. in New York, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. That would be the lowest closing price since the securities were sold in 2010.
The biggest U.S. iron-ore producer announced last month it would sell at least $1.1 billion of new debt to fund the buyback of as much as $600 million of debentures maturing from 2018 to 2021. Instead, the securities will be returned to holders, it said in a statement yesterday.
“With the unfavorable move in market rates during the past few weeks, the prudent decision is to postpone the company’s refinancing plans until market conditions improve,” Chief Executive Officer Lourenco Goncalves said in the statement. “We will be patient and disciplined in assessing the capital markets.”
Cliffs, whose credit rating was cut to junk by Standard & Poor’s in October, is among global mining companies contending with iron ore prices at a five-year low as demand from China cooled amid an economic slowdown. Plunging oil prices also forced energy producers Atlas Energy Group and EnTrans International LLC to delay their speculative-grade funding plans.
The spread on U.S. high-yield notes rose to 481 basis points more than Treasuries yesterday from 457 basis points when the Cleveland-based miner announced its bond sale proposal, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s U.S. High Yield Index. Premiums have risen from this year’s low of 335 basis points on June 20. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
Cliffs had also planned to repurchase portions of its $500 million of 3.95 percent notes maturing in 2018, the $400 million of 5.9 percent securities due 2020, the $500 million of 4.8 percent bonds due in 2020 and the $700 million of 4.875 percent notes maturing in 2021.
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