NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Thermo Fisher Scientific today said that it has priced $800 million of senior notes.
The Waltham, Massachusetts-based research tools and lab products giant has priced an offering of $450 million aggregate principal amount of 2.15 percent senior notes due 2018 and $350 million aggregate principal amount of 3.65 percent senior notes due 2025. The issuance of the notes is expected to close on or around Dec. 9, and the firm said the notes will pay interest semi-annually.
Thermo Fisher intends to use the proceeds to redeem the outstanding $900 million aggregate principal amount of its 3.20 percent senior notes that mature on March 1, 2016.
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Securities, and Mizuho Securities USA are joint book-running managers for the offering.
Fitch Ratings assigned a 'BBB' rating to the senior notes, and said the rating applied to the firm's $13.2 billion of debt as of Sept. 26, 2015, and to the firm's €425 million ($451.6 million) senior notes that were issued earlier this month. It added that the rating outlook is stable.
Fitch added that it forecasts Thermo Fisher to produce free cash flow of around $2.4 billion, "which is sufficient to accomplish necessary debt reduction."