(Bloomberg) -- Messer SE sold €950 million ($1.03 billion) in Schuldschein debt, marking the biggest deal so far this year for the niche German market.
The privately owned maker of industrial gases raised the debt to partially refinance a €1.45 billion bridge loan used to buy full control of a joint venture from CVC Capital Partners, the company said.
The deal provides a boost to the Schuldschein market, which has only seen a handful of transactions this year at the so-called benchmark size of €500 million or above. Overall issuance is running around 20% behind the same point in 2023, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Messer debt sale is the largest since Porsche Automobil Holding SE’s bumper €2.73 billion deal from early last year, the data show. It priced with a spread at the lower end of the initial range, the German company said.
Joint lead arrangers for the deal were Bayerische Landesbank, Deutsche Bank AG, Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen and UniCredit SpA.
The company also said it completed a private placement of senior notes in March.
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