Freddie Mac Launches New 2-Year, 10-Year Benchmark Notes

Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac (FRE) launched two new benchmark issues Wednesday.

The company, which canceled a scheduled offering last week, is back on track with this offering.

Freddie and its sibling Fannie Mae (FNM), which were taken over by the federal government last September, have raised tens of billions of dollars in debt over the past couple of months as investors snap up these securities.

Freddie seems to be well past the days when buyers demanded higher premiums on debt due to mounting concerns about its capital and whether the extent of government backing would be enough to pull the mortgage finance companies through the housing crisis.

Further, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would buy $100 billion more of these bonds, in addition to its current $100 billion purse, by year-end.

This week's issue launched with a price guidance in the area of 72.5 basis points over comparable two-year Treasury yields on the two-year note, and 100 basis points over comparable 10-year Treasury yields on the 10-year note.

The deal is expected to price Thursday and settle Friday.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse Group (CS) and RBS Greenwich Capital are the lead managers on the two-year deal. Citigroup Inc. (C), Barclays PLC (BCS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) are on the 10-year deal.

Currently, risk premiums on Fannie's 1.75% note due 2011 are tighter by 1.7 basis points at 66.5 basis points, while Freddie's 4.875% note due 2018 is 4 basis points wider at 84.5 basis points, according to TradeWeb data.

-By Prabha Natarajan, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5071; [e-mail]