Linklaters advised the chemical and pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA, which has its headquarters in Darmstadt, on the issuance of Eurobonds of approximately 2.1 billion euros. A total of three tranches was successfully issued: a 700 million euros floating rate note with a maturity of 2 years (with an interest rate of 0.23 percent above the three-month-EURIBOR rate) and two fixed rate notes with a maturity of four years (800 million euros; interest rate of 0.75 percent) and seven years (550 million euros; interest rate of 1.375 percent).

The Eurobonds were issued through Merck’s subsidiary Merck Financial Services GmbH. The issuance is the final important element of the financing of the Sigma Aldrich transaction. The acquisition of the U.S. life science company Sigma-Aldrich for approximately 17 billion U.S. dollars is aimed to be completed in the third quarter of 2015.

A Linklaters team led by Dr Alexander Schlee (Capital Markets, Frankfurt) advised on the transaction. The team also included Dr Christian Storck, Peter Waltz, Martin Rojahn and Konrad Uhink (all Capital Markets, Frankfurt)