Air Liquide launches the last step of Airgas acquisition refinancing

Air Liquide announces the successful placement of five USD-denominated senior bonds for an aggregate amount of 4.5 billion U.S. dollars, that constitute the third and last step in refinancing its acquisition of Airgas. These bond issuances have maturities ranging from 3 to 30 years, for an average weighted maturity of 10.6 years.

Following the Euro bonds issued in June and together with the rights issue in progress, the 4.5 billion dollars raised enable the Group to refinance the remainder of the bridge loan facility of 12 billion dollars that was contracted in December 2015 from its main banks in connection with the acquisition of Airgas, and to continue to sustainably finance the Group’s long-term growth.

The main characteristics of the bonds, which are expected to be settled on September 27^th, 2016 are the following:

• Amount: 4.5 billion U.S. dollars, in 5 series
• Issuer: Air Liquide Finance
• Guarantor: L’Air Liquide S.A.
• Maturities: 3, 5, 7, 10 and 30 years
• Format: fixed rate
• Coupons (payable semi-annually):
  • 1.375% on the 3-year series (750 million U.S. dollars),
  • 1.75% on the 5-year series (1 billion U.S. dollars),
  • 2.25% on the 7-year series (750 million U.S. dollars),
  • 2.50% on the 10-year series (1.25 billion U.S. dollars), and
  • 3.50% on the 30-year series (750 million U.S. dollars),
    for a weighted average rate of 2.3%.

Each issue will be rated « A- » by Standard & Poor’s and « A3 » by Moody’s.

With the completion of this transaction, the total amount of bond issues outstanding to date is approximately 14.3 billion euros for the Group, with an average maturity of 7 years.

Fabienne Lecorvaisier, Group Chief Financial Officer, said: “This inaugural U.S. dollar issue, a first for Air Liquide, is the last step of the Airgas acquisition refinancing, and should enable us to repay our acquisition bridge loan less than 5 months after drawdown.”