Halliburton in $7.5-billion bond issue

HOUSTON, November 6, 2015 – Oilfield services giant Halliburton is gearing up to issue $7.5 billion in bonds in order to partly finance its planned acquisition of rival Baker Hughes, the company announced in a statement on Thursday. The bonds will take the form of senior notes, which are more secure and come with lower interest than other types of bonds, and will be released in five tranches.

The first two tranches will aim to raise $1.25 billion each, in a five-year and seven-year offering. Two tranches of 10-year and 30-year notes would raise $2 billion each, and another trance of 20-year notes would raise the remaining $1 billion. Halliburton’s offering is expected to close on November 13, 2015.

Halliburton’s takeover of Baker Hughes was first announced in November 2014 and is valued at around $35 billion. The merger would create the world’s largest oilfield services company, and approval is subject to an anti-trust review by the US Department of Justice, which has until December 15, 2015 to issue a verdict. Halliburton is expected to have to sell off several business units in order to make the deal viable.

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