(Bloomberg) — Carlsberg Breweries A/S and Johnson & Johnson sold the first major buyout debt of the year in Europe’s primary market on Wednesday, pushing upwards corporate bond sales volumes after a slow start for the sector.
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Danish brewer Carlsberg raised €4 billion ($4.1 billion) and £500 million ($628 million) to refinance bank bridge facility agreements from a purchase of Britvic Plc completed last month, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified.
Johnson & Johnson sold €4 billion across a five-part deal for the acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc., according to a separate person familiar. The drug and medical-devices maker tapped the US market on Tuesday for $5 billion.
The issuance come amid a slow start to the year for M&A activity despite expectations from bankers that a revival in the space would boost new debt sales. The last major buyout financing to hit the European bond market was a €5 billion funding deal raised by DSV A/S in October for the acquisition of DB Schenker. Year-to-date investment-grade corporate issuance is now €58.58b, 1.5% ahead of 2024’s according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Global M&A deal values were down around 17% year-on-year to around $325 billion through the end of last week, Bloomberg-compiled data show. Market participants have attributed the slowdown to valuation mismatches and wariness around US President Donald Trump’s plans to implement trade tariffs.
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Strong demand from bond investors is pushing down spreads, meaning companies can raise funds with little to no issuance premium. Carlsberg had pulled in more than €16.5 billion equivalent of investor orders across all tranches at final allocations, the person familiar said. That meant it could price its 4.5 and seven-year maturity bond through its existing credit curve, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Meanwhile, AAA-rated Johnson & Johnson printed debt across 4, 8, 12 and 20-year tranches. It also issued a 30-year bond, the first to be sold in euros from any company since May. It ratcheted pricing tighter on all the tranches, paying as little as seven basis points of new issue concession on the shortest one. The firm’s dollar deal on Tuesday priced with 10-12 basis points of new issue concession, according to Bloomberg calculations.
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