Air Liquide successfully completes the first step in refinancing the Airgas acquisition

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Air Liquide announces the placement today of a 3-billion euro bond issue that constitutes the first step in refinancing its acquisition of Airgas. This transaction involves the issuances of several bond tranches ranging from 2 to 12 years, with a average weighted maturity of 7.3 years.

The 3-billion euros raised enable the Group to refinance a portion of the bridge loan of 12 billion US dollars that was contracted in December 2015 from its main banks in connection with the acquisition of the US-based company Airgas, and to continue to sustainably finance the Group’s long-term growth.

The characteristics of the bonds issued under the Group’s 12-billion euro Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) program are the following:

  • Amount: 3 billion euros in 5 tranches (from 500 million to 1 billion euros on the 12 years)
  • Issuer: Air Liquide Finance, garanteed by L'Air Liquide S.A.
  • Maturities: 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 years
  • Format: Floating rate for the 2-year tranche and fixed rate for the other tranches
  • Coupons: 3-month Euribor + 0.20% on the 2-year tranche, 0.125% on the 4-year, 0.50% on the 6-year, 0.75% on the 8-year, and 1.25% on the 12-year, for a weighted average rate of 0.65%.

This issue is rated A- by Standard & Poor’s and A-3 by Moody’s.

With the completion of this transaction, the total amount of bond issues outstanding to date is approximately 10.6 billion euros for the Group, with an average maturity of 5.7 years.

In addition, the base prospectus of the EMTN program, updated on June 3rd, 2016, is available on the Air Liquide website at the following address: https://www.airliquide.com/investors/financing-tools. It provides up-to-date information pertaining to the Group’s risk factors, specifically those related to the acquisition of Airgas.