U.S. corporate bond sales start year on strong footing

NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - U.S. companies are taking advantage of a strong tone in the corporate bond market with a flurry of sales, including at least four deals in the market on Tuesday, according to IFR.

The sales follow a $10 billion FDIC-backed bond from General Electric's (GE.N) finance arm on Monday, along with smaller issues from PacifiCorp, a unit of MidAmerican Energy Holdings, and Weatherford International (WFT.N).

Devon Energy (DVN.N) is expected to sell a benchmark sized offering of five- and 10-year notes via Banc of America Securities, JPMorgan and UBS, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters service.

Other deals include $250 million of five-year notes from Brown-Foreman Corp (BFb.N), $500 million of 10-year notes from Tyco International Finance, guaranteed by Tyco International Ltd (TYC.N), and a benchmark-sized offering of 10-year notes and 30-year bonds from TransCanada Pipelines Ltd.

Banc of America Securities, Citigroup and JPMorgan are active book-running managers for Brown-Forman's offering, while Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are active book-running managers for Tyco's deal and Citigroup and HSBC are book-running managers for TransCanada's sale.

General Electric Capital Corp on Monday priced $10 billion of notes guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, the largest debt sale under that government guarantee program since its inception in November. For details click on [ID:nL6463883] and [ID:nN05383289].

U.S. corporate bond sales tumbled by nearly 35 percent in 2008 to $645 billion, the slowest year since 2002, as a global credit crisis cut investors' appetite for risky assets.

The corporate bond market rebounded in December, however, after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to near zero, encouraging investors to venture into riskier assets in a search for yield. (Reporting by Dena Aubin; Editing by Kenneth Barry) (dena.aubin@thomsonreuters.com; +1-646-223-6325; Reuters Messaging: dena.aubin.reuters.com@reuters.net))