Smiths Group launches 400m dollar bond offering

Smiths Group is to launch a 400m dollar-denominated bond offering, saying that the funds will be used for general corporate funding purposes and to repay certain existing debt.

The notes, with a coupon of 3.625%, mature in October 2022 and the offer is expected to close on October 12th 2012. They will be guaranteed by Smiths Group International Holdings and rank as unsecured debt.

At the last set of results for the year ended July 31st, this FTSE 100 constituent had net debt of £791m and paid out £63m on that debt net of interest earned on cash deposits.

Consensus estimates for 2013 are for a pre-tax profit of £494.79m on turnover of £3.1bn. This will place the stock on a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 10.8, offering a prospective yield of 3.8%

CM