The Firm represented BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Citi, Deutsche Bank Securities and J.P. Morgan and other underwriters in connection with a $5.0 billion offering of debt securities by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Wal-Mart offered $750 million of 0.750% Notes due 2013, $1.25 billion of 1.500% Notes due 2015, $1.75 billion of 3.250% Notes due 2020 and $1.25 billion of 5.00% Notes due 2040. The net proceeds from the offering will be used to repay outstanding commercial paper.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the three-year and five-year tranches of Wal-Mart’s debt offering “were sold with the lowest interest rate[s]on record for corporate debt [and] . . . beat the existing record three-year rate of 0.875% and a five-year rate of 1.625%, both on a Microsoft [offering] sold on September 22.” (The Firm had represented the underwriters in that recent Microsoft offering as well.)
The Firm previously represented the underwriters in two other debt offerings by Wal-Mart in 2010:
- a $1.5 billion debt offering, consisting of $250 million of 2.875% Notes due 2015 and $1.25 billion of 5.625% Notes due 2040 (completed in April 2010); and
- a $3.0 billion debt offering, consisting of $750 million of 2.250% Notes due 2015, $1.5 billion of 3.625% Notes due 2020 and $750 million of 4.875% Notes due 2040 (completed in July 2010).
Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, with total net sales of $405.0 billion in its fiscal year ended January 31, 2010.
The Simpson Thacher team for the debt offering included, among others, Glenn M. Reiter, Dov Gottlieb and Rohith Parasuraman (Capital Markets), Jonathan Cantor (Tax) and Andrew Pagliughi (Blue Sky).