High-grade issuance tally for May now at new monthly record

By Anthony Rodriguez NEW YORK, May 26 (IFR) - Pharmacy giant Walgreens launched aUS$6bn five-part bond on Thursday and pushed the US high-gradeissuance tally for May to US$160.824bn, setting a new record forthe busiest month ever. The Walgreens's deal, which is being used to fund itsacquisition of Rite Aid, joins a string of borrowers that haveissued US$6bn plus deals this month. This includes a jumbo US$20bn multi-tranche offering fromcomputer giant Dell to fund its purchase of EMC. Pricoa Global Funding was also in the market Thursday with aa US$500m five-year bond. Below is a table of the busiest months. AMOUNT PERIOD (US$bn) May-16 US$160.824bn May-15 US$156.996bn Mar-15 US$149.760bn Sep-13 US$143.903bn May-08 US$133.929bn Below is a table of the largest deals in May 2016 Date Issuer Amount (US$bn) 05/17/16 Dell US$20 05/19/16 Southern Co US$8.5 05/18/16 HSBC US$8 05/09/16 AbbVie US$7.8 05/05/16 Shell US$7.25 05/09/16 Chevron Corp US$6.8 05/26/16 Walgreens US$6 (Reporting by Anthony Rodriguez; Editing by Paul Kilby andShankar Ramakrishnan)