Chemical's offering fueled by rate swap.

Chemical Bank on Wednesday raised $150 million in 15-year subordinated debt, enticed by an interest-rate swap that made the offering less expensive than a 10-year issue.

The offering was priced to yield 6.73%, or 95 basis points more than the pre-issue yield of 10-year U.S. Treasury notes that were sold Wednesday.

Chemical entered a swaps agreement after Wednesday's issue in order to change its payments to a floating rate from a fixed rate, said Dina Dublon, senior vice president for corporate finance.

8 to 10 Basis Points Saved

She said the swap, combined with the rate of the debt issue, gives Chemical a floating rate of 35 basis points over the London interbank offered rate, including underwriting costs. This is about eight to 10 basis points less than what it would have paid for a 10-year issues with a swap into floating-rate payments, she said.

"The issue essentially comes in at a lower cost than 10-year money comes in at, so it's a hard temptation to resist," she said.

Favorable swaps conditions also led Chase Manhattan Corp. to issue $200 million of 15-year subordinated debt Tuesday, said a capital markets source.

Chemical's issue cannot be called.. It is rated A3 by Moody's Investor Service Inc. and A by Standard and Poor's Corp. Morgan Stanley & Co. is lead manager.

Chemical Banking Corp. has been in a refinancing mode this year, said Ms. Dublon. The company has called or redeemed about $1.8 billion in subordinated debt this year, which counted for about $1.2 billion in Tier 2 regulatory capital. Regulators start to discount subordinated debt when it has five years or less to maturity.

The bank this year has raised about $1.4 billion in subordinated debt, including Wednesday's issue, Ms. Dublon said. The new issues allow the bank to extend the maturities of its outstanding debt at a better rate, she said. At June 30, Chemical's estimated total capital ratio was 11.9%, up from 11.1% one year earlier.

A $2.5 Billion Universal Shelf

Ms. Dublon said the bank's refinancing of called debt this year is essentially complete, and that the bank will only be doing "opportunistic" capital issues in the remainder of the year, when the market offers rates too good to pass up.

Also on Wednesday, Chemical filed to issue up to $2.5 billion of debt securities, preferred stock, common stock, and other securities. The "universal shelf" is one of the largest securities filings ever by a bank.

It allows the bank to cover many different types of securities under one filing but does not signal any new slew of securities offerings, said Ms. Dublon. Combined with other filings outstanding, Chemical has a total of $4.2 billion of securities under registration.

NBD Bank, a unit of NBD Bancorp, issued $200 million of 6.25% subordinated notes due Aug. 15, 2003, at 99.596 to yield 6.305%, said lead manager Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.

The notes yield 55 basis points over comparable U.S. Treasuries. Noncallable for life, the deal is expected to be rated Aa3 by Moody's and AA-minus by S&P.One for the BooksLargest shelf registrations by banks SizeDate (billions)Aug. 2 NationsBank $4.01993Aug. 20 BankAmerica 3.01992Mar. 23 BankAmerica 3.01993Jan. 21 Chemical1993 Banking 3.0June 171993 Citicorp 3.0Aug. 11 Chemical1993 Banking 2.5Fillings for straight debt or debt andequity combinations Source: Securities Data Co.

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