Merck KGaA. (9/2/20). "Press Release: Merck Places Hybrid Bond Amounting to €1.0 billion". Darmstadt.

	Organisation	Merck KGaA
	Group	Merck (DE) (Group)
	Product	investment banking
	Product 2	LIFE SCIENCES
	Person	Kuhnert, Marcus (Merck (DE) 201408– CFO before CFO of Henkel Laundry + Home Care businss unit)

> Merck successfully places €1.0 billion hybrid bond in one tranche

> Proactive refinancing of June 2021 hybrid bond redemption

> Bond significantly oversubscribed

Merck, a leading science and technology company, today successfully placed a hybrid bond amounting to €1.0 billion. The placement has a maturity of 60 years with an early redemption option for Merck after six years and a coupon of 1.625 % payable annually. In addition to the new issue, Merck also announced a cash tender offer to repurchase an outstanding hybrid bond with an amount of up to €1.0 billion. This maturing hybrid bond has a first call date in June 2021.

“The early refinancing of the upcoming €1.0 billion hybrid redemption next year in combination with the tender offer is in line with our prudent financial policy. It also reinforces our commitment to hybrid capital as part of our toolkit to maintain a strong balance sheet,” said Marcus Kuhnert, Member of the Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer.

Receiving equity credit treatment from all three rating agencies Moody’s, Scope Ratings and Standard & Poor’s, the new hybrid bond, like the outstanding bond, supports Merck’s credit rating. The bond is equal in rank to the existing hybrid bonds and subordinated to all of Merck’s other existing financial liabilities.

The bond issued today achieved a well-diversified distribution among a wide range of institutional investors such as fund managers, insurance companies, pension funds, and banks and was significantly oversubscribed. Active bookrunners of the transaction were Barclays, BNP Paribas and Société Générale.

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

For more information, please contact Andreas Cezanne
+49 6151 72-45946
Email

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About Merck

Merck, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 57,000 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 2019, Merck generated sales of € 16.2 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