NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Agilent Technologies priced its public offering of senior notes at an aggregate principal amount of $400 million after the close of the market on Monday.
The notes will mature in October 2022 and bear interest at an annual rate of 3.20 percent.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company announced the offering earlier on Monday but did not price it. Following the announcement, ratings agencies Moody's and Fitch issued ratings on the notes.
Moody's assigned a Baa2 rating and said the rating outlook for the company is stable. The Baa2 rating, Moody's said, reflects Agilent's "significant scale and leading market positions within the measurement industry," and is supported by the firm's diverse product, geography, and end-user market within its four business lines, Diagnostics and Genomics, Life Sciences, Chemical Analysis, and Electronic Measurement.
Fitch gave the notes a BBB+ rating, saying the rating outlook is stable. In addition to noting Agilent's leading positions in the faster growing and more stable life sciences and chemical analysis markets, Fitch, similar to Moody's, pointed to Agilent's global footprint and significant diversification in end-markets, customers, and technology platforms.
It also said Agilent has conservative financial policies with "sufficient overall liquidity, as well as solid and growing annual free cash flow."
Barclays Capital, JP Morgan Securities, and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith are joint book-running managers on Agilent's offering.