Heinz sells US$10b of bonds for Kraft merger

New York

HJ HEINZ Co put US$10 billion of bonds on sale on Tuesday to finance its pending US$46 billion merger with Kraft, and will pay hardly any new issue concession at all as investors piled into the offering.

Two buyside sources said that order books were around US$45 billion just before the senior unsecured issue was launched. The new food giant, which will be rebranded Kraft Heinz Foods after the merger, was able to pull in pricing by 15-25 basis points across seven tranches from initial price thoughts to launch.