Ford $2.5 Bn Bond Issue Opens

Ford Motor Credit yesterday launched a $ 2.5 billion bond offering. The issue, including a seven-year $1 billion floating-rate tranche and a five-year $1.5 billion fixed-rate portion, will be the first in a series of large corporate offers this week. Bear Stearns, joint lead with Salomon Smith Barney, said the fixed-rate portion was targeted at fund managers in the US and the floating-rate tranche at European banks and other financial institutions. The tranches will be priced at about 55 basis points over the March five-year Treasury and some 21 basis points over three-month Libor respectively.