Sydney, Oct 29 - Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd , Australia's top soft drink bottler, has sold US$400 million of notes in the United States to refinance debt, it said on Thursday.
The offer, the first for the company in the 144a market, was well-oversubscribed at the final margin of 95 basis points over U.S. Treasury, Keith Allan, assistant treasurer at Coca-Cola Amatil said.
The 144a bond market is open to professional investors known as "qualified institutional buyers".
Strong demand allowed the borrower, which roadshowed, launched and priced the offer on the same day, to pay a lower spead than around the 100 bps initially anticipated.
Allan estimated the Australian unit paid five to 10 basis points more than its U.S. parent company, Coca-Cola Enterprises .
The offer was more than twice oversubscribed at 95 bps and was snapped up by money managers and insurance companies, a source who has seen the terms said.
Coca-Cola Amatil considered selling bonds in other markets, including Europe, Australia and the United States, and opted for the large and liquid 144a bond market because of its cheaper borrowing costs.
In the past, the beverage bottler favoured the rival U.S. traditional private placement (USPP) market, which has been a popular source of funds for Australian companies looking for large volume and long-dated debt.
"The U.S. 144a market priced our credit more aggressively than in the USPP," said Allan.
Coca-Cola Amatil also considered the Australian bond market but passed following preliminary pricing indications.
"A domestic transaction would not be able to compete with the price we received in the 144a market," Allan added.
Bond issues from non-financial borrowers are rare in Australia and represent only 3 percent of a record A$77 billion at the end of September, data from consultancy firm ADCM shows.
Typically, companies prefer to raise funds in Europe or the United States where they can sell larger amounts over longer terms than those in Australia.
Australian non-financial firms have raised A$23 billion offshore so far this year, representing 16 percent of the total raised offshore by local companies, according to ADCM data.
Coca-Cola Amatil, whose next large debt maturity is in 2012, has about A$2 billion of debt.