>>Roche Holding EUR5.25B 4-Year Tranche Sets Record
Last update: 2/25/2009 11:51:56 AM
LONDON (Dow Jones)--Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding AG's (ROG.VX) EUR5.25 billion, four-year tranche, part of its four-part bond offering, is the largest-ever single euro issue, Societe Generale strategist Suki Mann said Wednesday.
The four-year portion of the bond will be priced at 225 basis points over mid-swaps.
Accompanying this, three other tranches of the bond comprise a EUR2.75 billion, seven-year portion which will be priced at 265 basis points over mid-swaps; a EUR1.75 billion, 12-year part, expected to be priced at 310 basis points over mid-swaps; and a GBP1.25 billion, six-year tranche to be priced at 270 basis points over gilts.
Including this mammoth deal, new issuance supply for February now stands at EUR30.5 billion.
This highest new bond supply for February, Mann said, adding for the year-to-date total new issuance is just shy of EUR80 billion.
"We're anticipating a busy end to the first quarter and expect to see the EUR100 billion mark reached for supply before the quarter is out," he said.
BNP Paribas SA, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank AG and Banco Santander SA are acting as lead managers of the Roche deal.
The deal should be priced later Wednesday, subject to market conditions.
The issuer is rated Aa1 by Moody's Investors Service Inc. and AA- by Standard & Poor's Corp.<<
DNA spiked on this news, but has retreated some. The next big news will be when the tender offer period expires, and Roche announces how many shares it got. Assuming they don't get enough, then they have to decide whether or not to extend it, racing the data clock. Those announcements will likely be in the same PR. I'm not sure what the exchange rate is these days, but the total of the US and Euro bond deals by Roche amounts to somewhere around 3/4 of the needed financing. They have the cash and stock for the rest. So far, so good.
Cheers, Tuck |
