Carlsberg Breweries has issued €4 billion and £500 million in notes under its Euro Medium Term Notes programme.
Proceeds will go towards repaying bank debt associated with the £3.3 billion purchase of Britvic, completed 17 January 2025, and general corporate purposes, the company said.
Two days before the issuance, Moody’s assigned Baa1 ratings to the proposed senior unsecured notes. The ratings agency noted Carlsberg’s strong revenues and market share, the stable nature of the beverage industry, and the expectation of credit metric recovery within two years.
The outlook for the company remained stable.
The bonds will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. BNP Paribas, Danske Bank, Nordea, SEB, Société Générale and UniCredit were joint bookrunners for the issuance.
Ulrica Fearn, chief financial officer at Carlsberg, commented: “We’re very pleased with the strong interest and support from investors and the successful bond placing. We remain committed to maintaining a solid investment-grade rating and will de-leverage our balance sheet as fast as possible.”
The euro-denominated portion of the issuance consists of €1,000 million in 4.5-year and 7-year fixed-rate notes, with a 3% and 3.25% coupon respectively. A further €1,150 million was issued in 10-year fixed-rate notes, with a 3.5% coupon.
€850 million in floating-rate 2-year Euro notes were issued, with a coupon of 3-month Euribor + 40 basis points.
In GBP, £500 million in 14-year fixed-rate GBP notes with a 5.5% coupon were issued.
