(Bloomberg) -- Ace Ltd. is said to be planning to sell $5.3 billion in bonds to finance its acquisition of Chubb Corp.
The longest portion, a 30-year bond, may yield as much as 1.70 percentage points more than comparable government securities, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The debt sale, to help close a deal valued at about $30 billion, will be issued in as many as four parts, the company said in an Oct. 23 filing.
The deal, announced in July, will be paid with roughly half in stock and the rest in cash and debt. Ace, led by Chief Executive Officer Evan Greenberg, forecast annual savings of about $650 million by the third year after closing. The deal will help the Zurich-based company to compete against rivals such as American International Group Inc. and Allianz SE.
“This integration will be far more operationally taxing than any Ace has previously tackled,” Josh Stirling, a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst with an "outperform" rating on the stock, said in an Oct. 21 note. “We believe Ace is a well-run firm, which we wouldn’t be recommending if we didn’t think it had learned from the obvious lessons of the industry’s history.”
If the Chubb acquisition isn’t consummated or the merger agreement is terminated by Sept. 30, 2016, Ace will be required to redeem all of the notes at a price equivalent to 101% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, according to the person with knowledge of the deal.
Ace shares have declined 0.3 percent this year, trailing the 0.2 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The Bloomberg World Insurance Index has dropped 4.3 percent.
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