Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) priced a debt offering yesterday that it plans to use to consummate its $12.2 billion offer for CareFusion (NYSE:CFN).
The offering entails 5 sets of senior unsecured bonds worth a collective $6.2 billion.
That’s even less than BD said it would need last month, after revealing that it would use more cash and less debt to help fund the buyout, 1st announced in early October. The terms of the deal call for each share of CFN stock to bring $49 in cash and 77.7% of a share of BDX stock, for roughly $10.1 billion in cash and about $21 billion in stock, based on BD’s $115.84 Oct. 3 closing price.
The Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based company said it plans to issue a set of floating-rate notes due June 15, 2016 and another series of 4 sets due in Dec. 15 of 2017, 2019, 2024 and 2044.
Here’s the breakdown of the offering:
- $750 million at a floating rate (3-month LIBOR +0.45%), due June 15, 2016
- $1.25 billion at 1.8%, due Dec. 15, 2017
- $1.25 billion at 2.675%, due Dec. 15, 2019
- $1.75 billion at 3.734%, due Dec. 15, 2024
- $1.20 billion at 4.685%, due Dec. 15, 2044
If the proposed, $12.2 billion merger, which passed the waiting period mandated by U.S. anti-trust laws in November, fails to occur by Oct. 15 next year, BD pledged to redeem the notes at a special mandatory redemption price equal to 101% of their aggregate principal amount, plus interest, according to a regulatory filing.
The pending flotation by BD comes on the heels of the year’s largest bond offering, a $17 billion package Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) plans to use to fund its mega-merger with Covidien (NYSE:COV).