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Merck KGaA. (7/1/19). "Press Release: Merck Places Bonds Amounting to € 2 Billion. Issuance Is Final Key Component in the Financing of the Planned Versum Transaction". Darmstadt.

	Organisation	Merck KGaA
	Group	Merck (DE) (Group)
	Organisation 2	Versum Materials Inc.
	Product	banking
	Product 2	new materials / advanced materials
	Index term	Merck (DE)–SEVERAL: credit, 201907 three bonds amounting to €2b to finance acquisition of Versum Materials Inc
	Index term 2	Versum Materials–Merck (DE): investment, 201902– unsolicited all-cash offer at $48/share by Merck
	Person	Kuhnert, Marcus (Merck (DE) 201408– CFO before CFO of Henkel Laundry + Home Care businss unit)

> Three tranches placed

> Bonds significantly oversubscribed

Merck, a leading science and technology company, today successfully placed bonds amounting to € 2.0 billion. The placement is a component of the financing of the planned acquisition of Versum Materials Inc. (NYSE: VSM), which was announced in April 2019.

The placement comprises three tranches: a fixed-rate bond with a maturity of four and a half years amounting to € 600 million and paying a coupon of 0.005%, a second tranche of € 600 million with a maturity of 8 years, paying a coupon of 0.375% as well as a third tranche of € 800 million with a maturity of 12 years, paying a coupon of 0.875%. On June 18, Merck had already placed a euro hybrid bond amounting to € 1.5 billion to finance the planned acquisition.

“Following the successful placement of hybrid bonds two weeks ago, we have made use of the favorable market environment in order to finalize the financing of the planned acquisition of Versum. We’re resolutely pursuing our conservative financial policy further,” said Marcus Kuhnert, Member of the Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer of Merck.

The bonds issued today were significantly oversubscribed and achieved a well-diversified distribution among a wide range of institutional investors such as fund managers, insurance companies, pension funds, and banks. Bookrunners of the transaction were Merck’s relationship banks.

The acquisition of Versum is expected to strengthen the Performance Materials business sector. Versum is a leading supplier of innovation-driven, high-purity process chemicals, gases and equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2019, subject to regulatory clearances and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

Merck is rated “A” (stable outlook) by Standard & Poor’s, “A–“ (stable outlook) by Scope and “Baa1” (stable outlook) by Moody’s (details available here).

For more information. please contact Markus Talanow
+49 6151 72-7144
Email

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About Merck

Merck, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 52,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2018, Merck generated sales of € 14.8 billion in 66 countries.

Scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to Merck’s technological and scientific advances. This is how Merck has thrived since its founding in 1668. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Performance Materials.

Record changed: 2023-06-05