The Firm represented the underwriters, led by Barclays Capital, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Santander Investment and Scotia Capital, as joint book-running managers, in connection with an offering by Altria Group, Inc. of $4.225 billion of debt securities, consisting of $525.0 million of 7.75% notes due 2014, $2.2 billion of 9.25% notes due 2019 and $1.5 billion of 10.20% notes due 2039. Credit Suisse, U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc. and Wachovia Securities acted as senior co-managers for the offering. The notes are guaranteed by Philip Morris USA Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Altria. Altria will use all of the net proceeds of the offering and available cash to prepay all borrowings under a bridge loan it used to finance its January 2009 acquisition of UST Inc.
The Simpson Thacher team for the transaction included, among others, Ed Tolley, Edgar Lewandowski and Julia Kohen (Corporate), Jonathan Cantor and Jennifer Klein (Tax), Rachel Berry (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits), Michael Isby (Environmental), Linda Martin and Tamala Boyd (Litigation), Jennifer Rackoff (IP), Fagie Hartman and Andrew Janis (Labor), and Mark Lab (FINRA and Blue Sky).
Simpson Thacher represented various underwriters on U.S. dollar and euro-denominated bond offerings aggregating over $20 billion for Altria and its former subsidiary, Philip Morris International Inc., in six transactions over the last twelve months.