ComEd Taps Bonds To Take Down Short-Term CP

Commonwealth Edison, one of two utilities owned by Chicago's Exelon Corp., plans to use the proceeds from a $300 million, 10-year mortgage bond offering to help pay down $339 million from its $1 billion commercial paper program.

Joint bookrunners Wachovia Capital Markets, Citigroup Global Markets and Credit Suisse Securities are expected to close the offering today, Aug. 28.

Tom Miller, assistant treasurer, says the trio was awarded the mandate on the basis of competence and historical relationships with the company. "We've done a lot with all three banks in the past and all three are well-qualified," he says. Three other relationship banks were brought in to co-manage the offering to reward them for their services to date: Deutsche Bank Securities, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Securities and LaSalle Financial Services.

The 5.95% bonds, which were priced at 115 basis points over Treasuries on Aug. 21, are rated A- by Standard & Poor's, Baa2 by Moody's Investors Service and BB+ by Fitch Ratings. Jeanny Silva, associate director in the utilities group at S&P, says the new debt was rated one notch above the corporate credit rating because its property assets more than cover the maximum amount of first mortgage bonds it can issue.