Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

BD Announces Intent to Offer Senior Notes

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Becton Dickinson announced today it intends to offer senior unsecured notes to fund a portion of its $12.2 billion acquisition of medical device firm CareFusion.

The interest rate, maturity dates, and other key terms of the offering are to be determined at the time of pricing, said BD.

Moody's Investors Service assigned a provisional Baa2 rating to the proposed offering and affirmed BD's Prime-2 short-term rating. BD's existing A3 senior unsecured ratings remain under review for downgrade and Moody's said it anticipates that all of the firm's unsecured ratings will be downgraded to Baa2, with a stable outlook, when the transaction closes.

To fund the acquisition, BD will additionally use a $1 billion 364-day term loan and commercial paper borrowings. In a statement, Moody's said that this will weaken the firm's liquidity profile, but it should still be sufficient.

The ratings agency noted that though BD has generated a significant portion of its profit outside the US, it plans to bring back more overseas cash in a tax-efficient manner to help repay debt.

BD anticipates the acquisition of CareFusion will close in the first half of 2015.

Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Securities are acting as joint book-running managers on the senior notes offering. 

The Scan

Positive Framing of Genetic Studies Can Spark Mistrust Among Underrepresented Groups

Researchers in Human Genetics and Genomics Advances report that how researchers describe genomic studies may alienate potential participants.

Small Study of Gene Editing to Treat Sickle Cell Disease

In a Novartis-sponsored study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that a CRISPR-Cas9-based treatment targeting promoters of genes encoding fetal hemoglobin could reduce disease symptoms.

Gut Microbiome Changes Appear in Infants Before They Develop Eczema, Study Finds

Researchers report in mSystems that infants experienced an enrichment in Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Finegoldia and a depletion of Bacteroides before developing eczema.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment Specificity Enhanced With Stem Cell Editing

A study in Nature suggests epitope editing in donor stem cells prior to bone marrow transplants can stave off toxicity when targeting acute myeloid leukemia with immunotherapy.