Mars prices $26 billion 8-part bond, highlights big M&A financing week

By Shankar Ramakrishnan

March 5 (Reuters) - Family-owned candy giant Mars on Wednesday priced a $26 billion eight-part investment-grade bond offering to help finance its takeover of Pringles maker Kellanova K.N, in what is expected to be one of the largest acquisition financing deals this year.

Bank of America BAC.N, BNP Paribas BNPP.PA, Citigroup C.N, JP Morgan JPM.N, Morgan Stanley MS.N and Rabobank were the bookrunners for the offering.

Reuters last week reported the bonds would be announced this week.

Mars priced bonds with maturities ranging from two years to 40 years, and said it will redeem the notes at a price of 101% of the principal amount if the acquisition was not completed by August 20, 2026, it said in a statement.

The bonds headlined what has been a heavy week for acquisition financing. On Monday, design software maker Synopsys SNPS.O raised $10 billion selling six tranches of bonds that had maturities from two years to 30, to help finance its $34 billion takeover of Ansys.

Demand for Synopsys bonds was massive with books covered some three to five times the issuance size, according to Informa Global Markets data.

If Mars raises $25 billion, it would become the eighth-largest deal of all time and more than double the amount of M&A-related investment-grade bond issuance for the year, said IGM.

The announcement of the bond was made on a day when markets were relatively stable after a selloff earlier in the weekm as U.S. President Trump escalated a global trade war on Tuesday by imposing 25% tariffs on top trade partners, Canada and Mexico, citing ineffective border controls.