Monday, April 26, 1999
Ahold, the food retailer, Friday, April 23, priced a USD 1 billion Yankee bond, to be offered by Ahold's wholly owned subsidiary Ahold Finance U.S.A., Inc. The offering, pursuant to Ahold's USD 3 billion shelf registration statement, comprised a USD 500 million, ten-year tranche, priced at 112.5 basis points over Treasuries, to yield 6.326%. The second tranche consisted of a USD 500 million, thirty-year bond, priced at 125 basis points over Treasuries, to yield 6.939%.
The securities will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Royal Ahold. The issue was rated A3 by Moody's Investor Service and A by Standard & Poor's. The proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt. Chase Securities Inc. and J.P. Morgan & Co. acted as joint book-running managers and ABN AMRO Inc. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. acted as co-managers.
Royal Ahold is a rapidly growing international food retailer with leading supermarkets companies in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia. The company operates more than 3,600 supermarkets, hypermarkets and specialty stores and had 1998 sales of USD 30.9 billion. In the US Ahold is the leading supermarket operator along the eastern seaboard with more than 1,000 stores in five operating companies: Stop & Shop, Giant-Landover, Giant-Carlisle, Tops and BI-LO. Sales in the US totaled USD 16.2 billion in 1998. In March 1999, Ahold announced its attention to acquire Pathmark Stores, Inc. with sales of USD 3.7 billion and 132 supermarkets in the New York metropolitan area.