ST. LOUIS (dpa-AFX) - Drugmaker Merck KGaA (MKGAY.PK) said that it successfully placed euro bonds via its subsidiary Merck Financial Services GmbH. This serves the financing of the proposed acquisition of the U.S. life science company Sigma-Aldrich.
In total, three tranches were placed: a floating rate note with a maturity of two years amounting to 700 million euros, with a 0.23% spread over 3-month EURIBOR. In addition, two fixed rate notes with a maturity of four years (800 million euros for 0.75%) and seven years (550 million euros for 1.375%) were placed as well.
It was on September 22, 2014, that Merck and Sigma-Aldrich announced they entered into a definitive agreement for Merck to acquire Sigma-Aldrich for $17.0 billion, establishing one of the leading players in the $130 billion global life science industry.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX