FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Issue constitutes largest corporate debt offering ever
NEW YORK, September 13, 2013 – Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP announced that it has represented the underwriters in the largest corporate debt offering on record – Verizon Communication’s $49 billion bond sale to fund the company’s purchase of Vodafone Group PLC’s interest in Verizon Wireless.
The immense offering by Verizon is being issued in eight separate tranches – from 3 and 5-year floating notes to 3, 5, 7, 10, 20 and 30-year fixed rate notes. The underwriters were led by Barclays Capital; J.P. Morgan Securities; Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.
Verizon’s sale is the biggest single corporate debt issuance by a wide margin, dwarfing Apple’s $17 billion bond sale this past spring. Prior to that, the largest offering was the 2009 sale of $16.5 billion of bonds by Roche Holdings.
Milbank’s deal team was led by Global Securities partners Robert W. Mullen, Jr. and Paul Denaro. Milbank has been underwriter counsel to other major debt transactions for Verizon.
Also working on the latest transaction were London-based Global Securities partner Timothy Peterson and New York-based Tax partner Andrew Walker, along with New York-based Global Securities associates Michael Lee, Megha Shah and John Ablan and Tax associate Lysondra Ludwig.
“We are extremely pleased to be advising a world-class group of institutions in bringing this historic offering to market,” Mr. Mullen said. “The unprecedented size of the issue demonstrates the enormous liquidity in the market. We anticipate more large M&A transactions and large corporate debt issuance in the months ahead.”
Mr. Denaro added, “We are proud to have such an active role in this milestone offering on behalf of such a distinguished underwriter group. Our capital markets team has had a great year as major companies continue to take advantage of favorable conditions for funding acquisitions, operations and redeeming outstanding debt. We are pleased to be partnering with a deep roster of leading financial institution clients in structuring these varied deals, and look forward to a strong conclusion of the year.”
About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a leading international law firm providing innovative legal solutions to clients throughout the world for more than 140 years. Milbank is headquartered in New York and has offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, São Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, DC.
The firm’s lawyers provide a full range of legal services to the world’s leading commercial, financial and industrial enterprises, as well as to institutions, individuals and governments. Milbank’s lawyers meet the needs of our clients by offering a highly integrated and collaborative range of services across key practice groups throughout our global network. Milbank’s integrated practice is underpinned by our attorneys’ acknowledged technical excellence, sectoral expertise and a strong tradition of innovation and client service.
