Roche Said to Plan $5.75 Billion Bond Sale to Fund Acquisition
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — Roche Holding AG intends to offer $5.75 billion of bonds to fund its pending acquisition of biotechnology company InterMune Inc., according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.
The six-part issue would be the first foray by the world’s largest maker of cancer drugs into the U.S. bond market since its sale of more than $16 billion of bonds in 2009.
Roche, based in Basel, Switzerland, agreed in August to buy InterMune, the Brisbane, California-based company for $8.3 billion in cash. The agreement reflects Roche’s confidence in pirfenidone, potentially the first drug in the U.S. for a rare lung disease that typically kills in five years. The drug is already sold in Europe, Canada and Japan.
The biggest portion of today’s offering will be $1.5 billion of five-year, fixed-rate notes that may yield 50 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, according to the person who asked not to be named citing lack of authorization to speak publicly about the matter. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
Roche also plans to sell equal, $1.3 billion portions of 10-year and seven-year bonds, $850 million of three-year fixed- rate notes, $500 million of five-year, floating-rate securities and $300 million of three-year floaters, the person said.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Parry in New York at jparry5@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shannon D. Harrington at sharrington6@bloomberg.net John Parry, Faris Khan
