Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Thermo Fisher Scientific Prices $5.85B Senior Notes Offering

NEW YORK – Thermo Fisher Scientific said on Wednesday that it has priced an offering of $5.85 billion aggregate principal amount of five types of senior notes.

The company is issuing $1 billion aggregate principal amount of its 18-month floating rate senior notes due 2023; $500 million aggregate principal amount of its floating rate senior notes due 2023; $500 million aggregate principal amount of its floating rate senior notes due 2024; $1.35 billion aggregate principal amount of its 0.797 percent senior notes due 2023; and $2.5 billion aggregate principal amount of its 1.215 percent senior notes due 2024.

The floating rate notes will pay interest quarterly, and the fixed rate notes will pay interest on a semi-annual basis, the company said. The offering is expected to close on or about Oct. 22.

The joint bookrunning managers are Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, and Mizuho Securities USA.

Thermo Fisher said it intends to use the net proceeds to pay a portion of the cash consideration for its pending acquisition of PPD. The company agreed in April to pay $17.4 billion for the clinical research services provider, plus the assumption of approximately $3.5 billion of net debt.

A portion of the proceeds may also go toward general corporate purposes, which may include the acquisition of companies or businesses, repayment and refinancing of debt, working capital and capital expenditures, or the repurchase of outstanding equity securities. Thermo Fisher may also temporarily invest the net proceeds in short-term, liquid investments until they are used for their ultimate purpose.

Earlier this month, Thermo Fisher priced an offering of €5.25 billion ($6.06 billion) aggregate principal amount of four types of euro-denominated notes, and in August, it priced an offering of $3.1 billion aggregate principal amount of three types of senior notes. The company also said it would use the proceeds from these sales to pay in part for the PPD acquisition.

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.