VNU, the Dutch marketing and media information group, is scheduled to sign a euro2 billion ($1.83 billion) Euro-MTN programme today, October 5. Merrill Lynch is the programme arranger and has also been mandated, along with Barclays Capital, to lead-manage the inaugural Eurobond off the programme. A treasury official at VNU says: "We haven't given out any other information about the Eurobonds yet, although they are bound to be in euro. At the moment we feel confident that opportunities are there, but we are waiting to see the response from the roadshow." VNU will go on a roadshow next week, starting in Amsterdam and then onto London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and some other cities too. The borrower will be meeting many investors on a one-to-one basis but will also have some group meetings. The treasury official says: "It is a chance to have the documentation in place for either public or private deals, if the opportunity is there. After the initial Eurobonds we will look for opportunities for private deals." He adds: "We appointed Merrill Lynch as arranger at the end of August, so it has been quite a quick process." VNU is rated BBB+ with a negative outlook by Standard & Poor's and Baa1 with a stable outlook by Moody's. It is the fourth Dutch corporate to sign a programme this year and will join several other Dutch corporate names in the triple-B sector. Others are Athlon Beheer Nederland, which signed this year, Koninklijke Ahold, which signed last year, and Koninklijke KPN, which came to the market in 1998. The dealer panel is ABN Amro, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg.
October 05, 2001
