Würth Group Successfully Issues EUR 500 Million benchmark bond
The Würth Group took advantage of the favorable conditions in the capital markets to acquire long-term funds and very successfully issued a EUR 500 million euro bond in the market on 11 May 2015 through its financial company Würth Finance International B.V., based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The bond with a maturity of seven years carries an interest coupon of 1.00 percent p.a. and is secured through unconditional and irrevocable guarantees of Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG, Germany. Rating agency Standard & Poor’s has given the bond an "A, outlook stable" rating.
The bond was issued in cooperation with the joint lead managers DZ Bank AG, HSBC Bank plc, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and Deutsche Bank AG. It took only a few hours from the time the issuance was announced to the time the entire transaction was closed. In a market that has lately been rather volatile, investors met this transaction with enthusiasm. Subscription offers on the final price reached almost three times the total amount of the volume issued. Thanks to the great demand on the part of investors, the credit spread of 50-55 basis points communicated at the beginning of the book-building process could be reduced to 45 basis points in the course of the placement. The risk premium, which is rather low compared to the peer group, reflects the great trust investors place in this world market leader based in Southern German Künzelsau. Investors may look forward to a yield to maturity of 1.0390 percent per year.
The proceeds of the issue strengthen the Würth Group's long-term funding and liquidity basis for further growth of the Group. The average maturity period of outstanding financial liabilities of the Würth Group is considerably extended. After the repayment of a bond amounting to CHF 225 million with an interest rate of 3.875 % due in August 2015, the average interest rate for interest-bearing debt of Würth will reduce by more than half a percentage point.
"At last week's annual financial press conference, we had the pleasure to announce record figures with annual sales of EUR 10.13 billion and an operating result of EUR 515 million for the past business year. Moreover, growth in the Group picked up even more speed in the last months, underpinning our ambitious targets. We can consider ourselves lucky that we were so successful in borrowing in the capital market. The low interest rates currently prevailing at capital markets were not the only decisive factor, it was also down to the trust investors place in the name of Würth. We owe this to and would like to particularly thank our customers and our more than 67,000 employees for their performance." said Joachim Kaltmaier, Member of the Central Managing Board of the Würth Group.
