Refinitiv tightens talk for $4.25 billion four-part notes; pricing Tuesday

By Paul A. Harris

Portland, Ore., Sept. 18 – Refinitiv set final price talk on its downsized $4.25 billion equivalent four-part offering of high-yield notes on Tuesday.

A downsized $1.25 billion tranche of 7.5-year first-lien notes (B2/B/BB+) is talked to yield 6¼% to 6 3/8%. Earlier talk was in the 6½% area. Initial guidance was in the low 7% area. The tranche is downsized from $2 billion.

A $1 billion equivalent tranche of 7.5-year euro-denominated first-lien notes (B2/B/BB+) is talked at 4½% to 4 5/8%. Earlier talk was in the 4¾% area. Initial guidance was in the 5% area.

In the unsecured tranches, a downsized $1,575,000,000 tranche of eight-year senior notes (Caa2/B-/B+) is talked to yield 8¼% to 8 3/8%. Earlier talk was in the 8½% area. Initial guidance was in the low 9% area. The tranche is downsized from $1.8 billion.

And a downsized $425 million equivalent tranche of euro-denominated eight-year senior notes (Caa2/B-/B+) is talk to yield 6 7/8% to 7%. Earlier talk was in the 7¼% area; pricing there would have represented a widening from initial guidance in the 7% area. The euro-denominated senior notes tranche was downsized from $700 million.

The bonds are expected to price and allocate later on Tuesday.

The four-part bond offering was downsized from $5.5 billion in a shift of proceeds which saw the term loan increased by $1.25 billion, upping its size to $9.25 billion equivalent from $8 billion equivalent.

JPMorgan is the global coordinator and physical bookrunner for the bond deal.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Wells Fargo Securities LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, UBS Investment Bank, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, HSBC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Barclays, RBC Capital Markets LLC and SMBC are joint bookrunners.

MUFG, Mizuho Securities USA Inc., SG CIB, Standard Chartered, Natixis, BMO, TD Securities, UniCredit, Banca IMI, Jefferies LLC and Blackstone are the co-managers.

The notes in all four tranches come with three years of call protection.

Proceeds from the bonds and loans will be used to help fund the acquisition of a 55% stake in Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk by Blackstone, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and GIC, and for general corporate purposes.

When the acquisition is completed, Thomson Reuters’ Financial & Risk US Holdings Inc. will be renamed as Refinitiv US Holdings Inc.

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