UnitedHealth Raises Over $10 Billion to Fund Catamaran Buyout

Health and Healthcare

Published: July 21, 2015 5:45 pm

Last Updated: July 22, 2015 6:55 am

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) has confirmed what investors were expecting with the sale of billions of dollars in debt. The deal had been telegraphed, but the various tranches are close to $10.5 billion in total debt being sold. The purpose of the offering was to complete the planned acquisition of Catamaran Corp. (NASDAQ: CTRX) for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $12.8 billion, and Catamaran shareholders have already approved this pending acquisition.

With this deal pending and with the wave of healthcare mergers, 24/7 Wall St. recently reviewed whether UnitedHealth is fully valued.

24/7 Wall St. has rounded the figures for simplicity, broken out by the year each series matures. UnitedHealth had $750 million in floating rate notes and the following in maturities: $750 million in 2017, $1.5 billion in 2018, $1.5 billion in 2020, $1.0 billion in 2022, $2.0 billion in 2025, $1.0 billion in 2035 and $2.0 billion in 2045.

The underwriting syndicate is massive: JPMorgan, Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank, BNY Mellon Capital Markets, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo Securities.

UnitedHealth indicated in the filing that it will receive net proceeds from this offering of approximately $10,425,092,500.00, which is after deducting underwriting discounts and other expenses.

The company noted specifically that the entire amount of the net proceeds from this offering were earmarked to pay the purchase price and the related costs and expenses of the Catamaran Acquisition. The rest of the purchase price will be funded by cash on hand.

Again, the bond offering was not unexpected. The size of the bond offerings may still turn some heads, as may the total size of the underwriting syndicate that sold the corporate debt.

S&P rates UnitedHealth Group’s senior unsecured debt as A+ and Fitch assigned an A- rating to the unsecured notes. Moody’s assigned an A3 rating.

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UnitedHealth shares closed down by 1.5% at $120.86 on Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $146.11 and a 52-week range of $78.74 to $126.05.

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