Ondeo Nalco, the US water treatment company, came to the high-yield market on Wednesday, with a $1.6bn-equivalent deal.

The transaction is to finance the purchase of Nalco from Suez by private equity firms Apollo Management, Blackstone Group, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.

Nalco sold $665m and EU200m ($233m) in senior notes due in 2011, priced at par to yield 7.75 per cent.

It also sold $465m of senior subordinated notes due in 2013 priced at par to yield 8.875 per cent and EU200m of senior subordinated notes due in 2013 priced at par to yield 9.0 per cent.

Lead managers were Citigroup, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and UBS.