(Bloomberg) -- Banks led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. could offer one of the year’s biggest discounts to sell some of the $5 billion in debt for software firm Qualtrics International Inc. that the underwriters were stuck holding a few months ago.
Bankers have scheduled meetings with investors this week to discuss the sale of nearly $2 billion of debt in the high-yield bond market, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Initial indications are that the debt could be marketed at a coupon of at least 8% and a discounted rate of about 85 cents on the dollar, said the people, requesting anonymity as the talks are private.
If a deal was struck at that price, it would represent one of the biggest new-issue discounts for a debt sale in the US high-yield market this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A number of software companies have had to pay high borrowing costs and boost protections to lock in lenders in recent months, as concerns about AI-disruption to their businesses have intensified.
A debt sale for Qualtrics could come as soon as next week and price before the Thanksgiving holiday, the people said. Representatives for JPMorgan and private equity firm Silver Lake, which owns Qualtrics, declined to comment. A representative for Qualtrics didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Qualtrics, which makes online survey tools, agreed to buy data analytics firm Press Ganey Forsta more than a year ago in a deal valued at $6.75 billion. Eleven banks committed about $5.3 billion in debt financing for the transaction, and the group started preliminary discussions with investors earlier this year to sell that down.