2023-05-16 14:30:14 ET
Pfizer ( NYSE: PFE ) received more than $85B in orders on Tuesday as it kicked off an investment-grade jumbo bond sale, one of the biggest in history, to finance its proposed acquisition of Seagen ( NASDAQ: SGEN ), Bloomberg reported citing a person familiar with the matter.
The bond offering, Pfizer's ( PFE ) first since 2021, is expected to raise about $30B, the person said. The deal marks the largest debt financing for a merger or acquisition this year and is ranked among the fourth largest corporate bond offering ever, alongside two other deals.
According to Bloomberg, the deal matches AbbVie's ( ABBV ) 2019 offering to fund the acquisition of Allergan and the amounts sold by AT&T ( T ) and Discovery in 2022 to help combine their media businesses.
Pfizer's ( PFE ) bond offering comes in eight parts, with the longest portion of the deal being a 40-year bond which yields 1.6 percentage points over treasuries, down from 1.8 percentage points cited in earlier discussions, the person said.
The special mandatory redemption language of the deal, which describes the terms of bond repurchase if the merger is terminated or doesn't close at the agreed date, was also revised on Tuesday.
Pfizer's ( PFE ) debt offering comes amid rising regulatory scrutiny over biotech deals. Seagen ( SGEN ) shares came under pressure in the pre-market trading Tuesday amid reports that the Federal Trade Commission was planning to challenge Horizon Therapeutics ( HZNP ) and Amgen ( AMGN ) in their agreement to combine in a ~$28B deal.
More on biotech M&A
- What is behind biotech M&A resurgence?
- XBI: Uncorrelated Growth Capitalizing On The M&A Tidal Wave In Pharma
For further details see:
Pfizer bond offering to fund Seagen deal said to among largest on record