Barclays Capital was briefed by Heineken as mandated lead arranger and bookrunner to assemble a package of financings to support recent acquisitions of Austrian brewer Getränke Beteiligungs AG and to establish core working capital and acquisition facilities. The financing included a e1.2bn five-year syndicated loan and a e1.1bn two-tranche bond issue. Of note, Heineken is the first unrated corporate borrower to access the 10-year euro market.
The bond transaction achieved considerable oversubscription, attracting an order book in excess of E4bn across both tranches. Pricing was very competitive for an unrated borrower at 43 basis points over mid-swaps (versus guidance of 50 to 55 basis points) for the six-year tranche and 63 basis points over mid-swaps (versus guidance of 70 to 75 basis points) for the 10-year tranche.
