Anheuser-Busch InBev is selling $46 billion (€42 billion) of bonds to finance its takeover of SABMiller, setting up what is likely to be the biggest corporate-debt offering ever.
The figure is more than the $25 billion the brewer initially sought, according to sources. The company received $110 billion of orders, the most ever for a corporate bond deal.
With the company still potentially raising debt in other currencies, the deal may surpass the $49 billion Verizon Communications raised two years ago in the biggest corporate bond offering on record.
“This has been a highly anticipated deal which checks several attractive points in this market,” said Dorian Garay of NN Investment Partners. “InBev will enter into a deleveraging path after the acquisition which offers more visibility compared to other names that are actively looking for acquisitions, and event risk is high.”
The sale is the biggest test in years for credit markets grappling with a slowdown in China, a commodities slump and the first US interest-rate hike in almost a decade. – (Bloomberg)
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